[tupac_orionmg]

Hi it's my first time posting. I've been an avid reader and I have learned a lot from these forums. That's why I'm turning to this community for help. And before someone comments about searching the forums about my problem, I have and I have gotten different perspectives but not enough to give me a full view of my current situation.

I won't type too much and make it short.

Driving home, coolant low symbol comes on. I pull over to the Walgreens next to me. Since I live in Florida I wasn't as much concerned as running complete 50/50 mix so I got distilled. Started refilling and discovered that upper radiator hose was literally leaking on my belt and alternator as I pour water in my car.

Freaked out and drove 5 blocks to my apartment, on the way I can hear my belts squeaking from the coolant water every 10 seconds. Finaly make it home and was pulling to my parking spot. As I pulled in, dashboards starting blinking and car shut off by itself as I perfectly manage to park it in.

Immediately replaced my hose. $55 dollars upper radiator hose (the old hose was cut from being deformed and was ever so slowly cut by my belt for my alternator) reflilled my coolant and checked for any other leaks. No more leaks. Tried to start my car and all it did was flash on the dashboard and abruptly cut off the dash lights and nothing happened.

Let it dry in the hot Florida weather for an hour and tried again. This time, it tried to turn over for a second and that as it. Tried a couple more times. Figured the battery might be out of juice. Tried jumping. Still no dice. Charged it up overnight and tested the voltage and it was fully charged. Tried it. All electronics came back up fine. The dash didn't flicker. Tried to turn over but no click. Just humming noise. Tried the BST and IBS plugged and unplugged but still no luck.

Monday which is today, friend came over and opened up my car and took a look at the starter, which seems to be friend because after tapping it, it would make a click and try to start.

Right now I'm pretty sure the starter is fried. But I'm also afraid that my electronics would also be fried as well or anything else because of the way I pulled into my parking situation the dashboards flickered and the car shut off by itself.

Extra information is that
*car did not overhear because the oil temperature was a little below 200
*the coolant was at 111 when I checked for codes after my car died.
*only code I could pull from the car yesteray was a faulty DMTL pump which I've had for a month and was planning on replacing.

And ideas or anything I should be expecting or should check? Anything at this point to help me narrow down my problems. I'm afraid my engine has seized.

[patents]

I cannot imagine any reason why your engine would be seized.

Starters are such a common problem, and since tapping it made it do something, I would say for sure your starter is bad. That would be step 1: replace starter.

As for why the dash flickered and the car shut off, my guess is that coolant got into the alternator and caused some voltage fluctuation. I doubt you fried any electronics unless the voltage spiked possibly. You would think that they would design it so that you don't fry computers every time an alternator goes out. Now, is your alternator ok? No way to tell yet.

[tupac_orionmg]

Thanks for the fast reply. My friend said it could be a possibility since it died when I parked in the spot.

I can't see a reasoning why my car would shut off as I pull in the parking lot. But your reasoning being that the alternator may have spiked the voltage on the car might have caused it to shut off sounds very plausible

As far as the alternator, I've read that they could take quite a beating. But I'm crossing my fingers that it's JUST the starter.

[mweisdorfer]

I think your alternator is fried. You mentioned that coolant got all over it. Alternators are not that fond of coolant or ATF from power steering.

Maybe purchase a new alternator and starter. Put in a new alternator and try and start it. If no dice, then replace the starter.

Take the battery out and charge it to 100%, so you can eliminate that variable.

You can get good deals on Amazon; if you have prime, then you can get them in 2 days. Bosch is the OEM provider. Don't pay extra for the BMW sticker.

To change the starter, to will need a special ratchet.

http://m.sears.com/craftsman-3-8-in-...g&gclsrc=aw.ds

[tupac_orionmg]

I was told the starter is a 4 hour job plus that there is a screw that goes through the transmission to the starter? And the alternator is about the same difficulty. I'll get one of my master tech friends to help me on it. But I'm definitely starting with the starter.

[Antetokounmpo]

Originally Posted by tupac_orionmg

I was told the starter is a 4 hour job plus that there is a screw that goes through the transmission to the starter? And the alternator is about the same difficulty. I'll get one of my master tech friends to help me on it. But I'm definitely starting with the starter.

Both of those statements are somewhat incorrect. Both are held in with 4 or 5 screws (plus wire connections to disconnect). It takes a bit of time to get to each but neither is all that difficult. Though I'm pretty sure they are about 3-4 hours book time each. Both are very DIY-able though.

[tupac_orionmg]

Thanks for the response. I guess the best option right now is to just replace the alternator and starter while I'm in there.

[kkasson]

I don't have a full answer for you but a couple things: alternator is relatively easy to replace, starter is more difficult. The alternator is basically ready to remove after removing the belt, you have to remove the intake manifold to get to the starter.

However, before you start replacing things, a bad alternator shouldn't cause a no-start. I suppose it's possible that if something is shorted out it won't let it start, but it's much more common for the alternator to just stop charging. You might want to remove the belt and remove the electrical connectors from the alternator, and then try to start it. I guess it might be possible that they designed it so the car won't start if the alternator isn't connected, but generally you can start and run the car at least temporarily without an alternator.

You can also remove the alternator and take it to a parts store to have it tested, but the bolts are one-time use and you'll need to replace the bolts if you remove it, even if you're putting the same one back in. It's a pretty expensive alternator, so you should make sure that you really do need one before just replacing it.

Again same thing with the starter, usually parts store will be able to test it. It's also possible to test it yourself if you have an extra battery, but make sure you do it correctly or you can hurt yourself or the starter.

With that said, I don't see why the starter would have gone bad. It's possible that the alternator could be damaged if water was spraying on it, but I don't see what would have happened to the starter. Did you check all the fuses?

[tupac_orionmg]

Originally Posted by kkasson

I don't have a full answer for you but a couple things: alternator is relatively easy to replace, starter is more difficult. The alternator is basically ready to remove after removing the belt, you have to remove the intake manifold to get to the starter.

However, before you start replacing things, a bad alternator shouldn't cause a no-start. I suppose it's possible that if something is shorted out it won't let it start, but it's much more common for the alternator to just stop charging. You might want to remove the belt and remove the electrical connectors from the alternator, and then try to start it. I guess it might be possible that they designed it so the car won't start if the alternator isn't connected, but generally you can start and run the car at least temporarily without an alternator.

You can also remove the alternator and take it to a parts store to have it tested, but the bolts are one-time use and you'll need to replace the bolts if you remove it, even if you're putting the same one back in. It's a pretty expensive alternator, so you should make sure that you really do need one before just replacing it.

Again same thing with the starter, usually parts store will be able to test it. It's also possible to test it yourself if you have an extra battery, but make sure you do it correctly or you can hurt yourself or the starter.

With that said, I don't see why the starter would have gone bad. It's possible that the alternator could be damaged if water was spraying on it, but I don't see what would have happened to the starter. Did you check all the fuses?

I can't seem to find a diagram for the fuses that would cause the starter to fail. But with that being said, my friend took a red are from his trunk and plugged it into the starter and connected it at the back of the positive side of the alternator (all while being hooked onto his car from jumper cables so getting enough power to crank the car plus a full charged batter). Testing it, the starter would only actually try to click when he was tapping on it with a wrench. Without tapping it, it does nothing. So we will tap the starter and hook the wires again and it would click 2-3 times then just stop clicking at that point. So def a bad starter.

Your input is very much appreciated and gives me more insight to what I should be looking at. Yes I do hope the alternator is still good. But for sure once I get the starter replaced, theoretically it should run, until the battery is depleted. So then I would be able to tell if the alternator is faulty.

[muncie21]

Here's my 0.02 for what it's worth.
Sounds like you likely have a starter issue, but I would check a few things first, before going there.
1) Pull the battery and charge it
2) Pull all the spark plugs

After that, try to turn the engine over. If the motor won't turn over, either your starter is toast or your motor is seized.

[tupac_orionmg]

Originally Posted by muncie21

Here's my 0.02 for what it's worth.
Sounds like you likely have a starter issue, but I would check a few things first, before going there.
1) Pull the battery and charge it
2) Pull all the spark plugs

After that, try to turn the engine over. If the motor won't turn over, either your starter is toast or your motor is seized.

What reason would my motor be seized? Any particular reason so I can understand?

It's for sure a bad starter since it only clicked and responded when we tapped it with a wrench.

[MR.BLUECOLLARMAN]

You can take a ratchet with a 22m socket I believe and you can turn it over by hand. If it's seized it wouldn't budge. Highly doubt it did though.

[tupac_orionmg]

Originally Posted by MR.BLUECOLLARMAN

You can take a ratchet with a 22m socket I believe and you can turn it over by hand. If it's seized it wouldn't budge. Highly doubt it did though.

Yeah I have confidence that it hasn't seized. This engine has been taken care off. 4-5k oil changes. Everything in this machine has lasted way beyond expectations. Completely stock. Has never seen a JB4 mod or Cobb. MHD etc. sparks and coils were replaced whenever I felt it need it. Coolant was always level. Gaskets were replaced to get rid of oil leaks. All done my master technician friends. And has always been complimented to be a clean engine. The only reason I had a coolant leak was because my hose got deformed over time and bulged out towards my alternator belts that caused it to get cut and spray all over.

Hoping for the best right now but also I can't completely rule out the engine seizing. It happens. Just like anything.

From my experience trying to start the engine by tapping the starter and having a wire directly from the starter and connecting it to the alternator to jump start it from under the hood, I have seen the belt move enough around the alternator but not enough to start the car. Would that pretty much rule out the engine seize?


PS: turning the socket would test it, but I was told that I would have to pull out the entire engine to do that.

[MR.BLUECOLLARMAN]

You can turn it over by the big middle bolt in the front of the engine, the main pulley bolt. It's a little awkward to squeeze your hand in between the radiator and engine but it's not too bad. Honestly, the only way it would seize is if the coolant somehow flew into the intake and into the pistons, that would be my guess. But another issue I was thinking of was that the head could have possibly warped from excessive heat. Someone was saying it was made out of a (magnesium) type material and overheating would pretty much toast your engine

[tupac_orionmg]

Originally Posted by MR.BLUECOLLARMAN

You can turn it over by the big middle bolt in the front of the engine, the main pulley bolt. It's a little awkward to squeeze your hand in between the radiator and engine but it's not too bad. Honestly, the only way it would seize is if the coolant somehow flew into the intake and into the pistons, that would be my guess. But another issue I was thinking of was that the head could have possibly warped from excessive heat. Someone was saying it was made out of a (magnesium) type material and overheating would pretty much toast your engine

Hmm possible warped head. Could be but, since it wasn't much of a drive from when my coolant started leaking and what not, plus usually if the engine gets too hot (BMW engines shut off with the temperature symbol wouldn't it? It barely hit oil operating temperature when I got to my friends apartment. (Not to mention I let the engine cool down when I went to grab coolant when I saw the coolant low warning.) plenty of precautions that I took. I'm actually more worried about my DME being fried than thinking of a seized engine xD

PS: if my engine is seized, I'll just part out my whole car and pay off the little remaining payments I have.

[MR.BLUECOLLARMAN]

I wouldn't be 100% sure on the warped head, just an idea. I had mine over heat over the weekend as well :/ didn't properly vent the air and drove maybe less than a mile on the coolant temp symbol. The car actually didn't let me WOT it, drove steady 60mph and left it at a gas station. Definitely not the greatest feeling in the world. What I would do is maybe find someone that can loan you working parts and test one by one. New alternator, battery, swap in a ECU with CAS and key and see if that will let you fire it up. Wasn't paying attention earlier, but did you read the fault codes?

[tupac_orionmg]

Originally Posted by MR.BLUECOLLARMAN

I wouldn't be 100% sure on the warped head, just an idea. I had mine over heat over the weekend as well :/ didn't properly vent the air and drove maybe less than a mile on the coolant temp symbol. The car actually didn't let me WOT it, drove steady 60mph and left it at a gas station. Definitely not the greatest feeling in the world. What I would do is maybe find someone that can loan you working parts and test one by one. New alternator, battery, swap in a ECU with CAS and key and see if that will let you fire it up. Wasn't paying attention earlier, but did you read the fault codes?

Only fault codes I got was the DMTL. Diagnostic pump that I've had for a month. Was going to replace but.. Haha honestly from my extensive web browsing and research I feel very comfy my car isn't warped or seized. But like anything I won't rule it out as a complete impossibility.

Oh man that does not sound fun. Never had that happen to me. Thankfully when I had the thermostat warning and heard my fan go off really loud, I was next to the military auto shop where you DIY on personal cars. So I just drove it in there and changed the water pump xD

[MR.BLUECOLLARMAN]

What were you using to scan the codes?

[tupac_orionmg]

Originally Posted by MR.BLUECOLLARMAN

What were you using to scan the codes?

My friend had that BT app for his android. Not exactly sure. You think it's insufficient?

[MR.BLUECOLLARMAN]

Originally Posted by tupac_orionmg

My friend had that BT app for his android. Not exactly sure. You think it's insufficient?

I've seen a lot of scanners not read all of the codes. You can ask around the forum see if anyone has the BMW diagnostic program. It's a bit expensive as it's the same thing the dealership uses. I see you're in Florida! I'd definitely come down for a little vacation and scan it for you

[tupac_orionmg]

Originally Posted by MR.BLUECOLLARMAN

I've seen a lot of scanners not read all of the codes. You can ask around the forum see if anyone has the BMW diagnostic program. It's a bit expensive as it's the same thing the dealership uses. I see you're in Florida! I'd definitely come down for a little vacation and scan it for you

Believe it or not. I'm from SC Charleston to be exact. Summerville is where my parents are at. And I'm in the Navy currently stationed here in Jacksonville, Florida. Haha come down and I'll hook you up with Disney tickets and Busch Gardens haha.

[MR.BLUECOLLARMAN]

Don't tempt me ! That's really cool! I'm here in Greenville, moved here from Washington about three years ago. Anyway about your BMW lol, if you have a laptop you can download INPA and that will read all of your codes for you. Might be in German but you can google the fault numbers