rijac1970

well after the pump was changed no more leaking. but i now have a bad coolant level sensor... grrr...

i tought i would just stick to one thread on the e90 instead of starting a new one. i won't be surprised if i have a new problem every other month at the rate he's going! wanted to share my new problem - a few months ago i started to get a low coolant warning once every month or so. the frequency increased recently and i have been topping up coolant every 2 days for the last week. big pool of coolant on the engine bay floor and large patch of wet on the driveway too. stuck my hand under the engine block and could feel the water dripping out from near the front. booked in to BMW and as I suspected its a leaking water pump. some people were saying in a different forum that this is not a scheduled maintenance part for the e90 and that it should be - well maybe, but i'm glad in my case it isn't because it is covered by my autosure warranty since it is not a scheduled replacement part - still costing me a few hundred but the full cost was over 1k!.

I had a frenchie before. .. electronics

curious though - would the 323 or 325 versions have the same issues? i would presume they share a lot of the parts. or is the 6 cyl engine completely different?

well, i've been reading up and yes, oil consumption/leak is a very common problem. i'm puting in a litre a month on average which is probably too much, given how low my usage is in KMs. just been a bit tied up and busy to having it looked at in detail to find out the real source of the leak. the coolant leak is a funny one though.. it can go for a long time with no drop in level then one day all of sudden i find a pool of coolant on the bottom of the engine bay....

so, i've had this 2005 e90 320i for 8 months now. love the car. its brilliant. not entirely problem free - had to replace a sensor and have ongoing oil consumption (leak) and coolant leak issues. so, i've become quite used to weekly checks for oil and coolant levels. usually the warning light for low oil comes with a +1L instruction. so the other day, i had a low oil warning but without the +1L. i put 800ml in. then i drove from takapuna to pt chev. noticed some white smoke whafting from the engine bay on the way over. i know this sometimes happens because of the oil leak onto to manifold and getting burned off. but by the time i got to my destination, it was pretty much steaming nonstop and when i popped the bonnet there was oil all over the place and i could see it flowing out through the top where the filler cap was. fearing the worst (it is a BMW after all!) i figured my gasket had blown.. but after observing for a while, i realized it might have been over filling of engine oil... i didn't have any tube or pump to suck out oil so i just called AA for a tow home. i figured i could suck it out or just drive it quickly to the BMW 5 minutes from home on monday (this happened sunday night). next morning i noticed the filler cap was not locked in properly. i wondered if it had been blown off during the leak from the overfill. but at the same time the oil gauge sensor was showing 3 quarters full only. i tightened the cap, cleaned up the engine bay a bit and started the engine and let it warm up and drove around the block a few times pushing hard to see if i could force the thing to pop again. everything was back to normal. conclusion - i hadn't put the cap on and locked it thightly!!! don't be an idiot like me if this happens to you. don't panic, keep calm take your time to think through what the problem could be... i'm laughing now, but it wasn't funny on that day. just wanted to share. EDIT: wanted to talk about the waterpump leak that just happened and decided i'd just make this an ongoing e90 problem discussion thread (i bet i'll have plenty more to come!) instead of starting a new one. Might be useful for potential e90 users as a reference.

thanks. this would explain the need for oil top ups huh? will have it looked at. appreciate the response.

not sure what a v1 is but i sometimes just have to push the thing into the socket a little harder until it clicks and it works well.

hello.. one more quick question.. every now and then i get a strong burning smell in the car... like clutch/rubber burn... not sure what could be the cause. i do notice that the little rubber stoppers under my bonnet are melted. wonder if this could be it. or something more serious...

Hi, I'm richard. about 7 months ago i bought a japanese imported 2005 320i e90 with 80k on the clock. formerly was driving a renault megane 1.6 liter sedan. really love this car and i've been lucky that i've only had 1 issue so far - the crankshaft speed sensor went kaput. the wing mirrors weren't operating to their full range as well but i'd bought an autosure warranty and i was able to use that to pay for the replacement - 350 excess with GST for a 1.7k part! i'm now at 88k and done my first oil change and basic service. she's purring like a kitty again. is it just me or is this car a little bit low - i keep having to crawl over humps and driveway entrances.

thank you for your replies. i'll pop into Repco and SCA to check. i would much prefer using castrol but i bought this service package at Michies Automotive so have to use the oil they carry for now. i do have one other question - i wasn't sure if i should look for BMLL01 or LL04 specs when looking at the oils. just wanted to make sure. thanks a lot.

hello there. i've just had a service done on my 2005 320i e90 (almost 90k mileage) and the workshop used Valvoline 5w-30 fully syn oil. I wanted to buy a bottle to keep because my car does consume some oil and i wanted to top up with the same brand and specs. They workshop doesn't sell by the bottle/retail. I've checked around on Repco and Supercheap auto websites and seems they only carry the 5w-40 version. Does anyone know where I could buy Valvoline 5w-30 oil retail? Thank you so much.