Arata

I put 50/50 ratio and about 10 litres each. Soaked inside for 4-6 hours, and flip the tank upside down and soak further 4-6 hours.

Update guys. Managed to encourage myself to take the tank out and cleaned it during Easter holidays. The rust wasn’t as bad as I thought. Definitely needs another good cleaning with soaking in the solution but it came out much better. I used CRC Evaporust with distilled cleaning vinegar and was a good success of cleaning. I just had to keep rinsing and cleaning with acetone about 5 times fully till all rusts are gone. The photo of the bucket with rust was about the third time when I drained the tank. Also at the same time, I’ve replaced the flexi disc on driveshaft as i didn’t notice that it was far beyond cracking. Don’t ask how I’ve been driving with it like that condition for the whole time…

Thanks guys for suggestions. I’ll have a decent look inside the tank and decide what I can do.

Hey team. My 325i died on Friday night (some people might have seen me at Pak n Save getting towed haha). Did quick diagnostics while I was waiting for tow truck to come. Cranking forever and not starting. Funny enough I’ve already replaced fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator and other normal maintenance items so I’ve scratching my head. Got it towed back home, yesterday morning I’ve checked the usual things as it follows… All relays working. Fuse and relay for fuel pump is getting power while cranking as well as at connector end. I added direct power to the pump and I can hear the pump moving. Checked the fuel filter and it wasn’t the dirtiest as I’ve replaced about 1 year ago. But did some rust came out. So put everything connected again and disconnected the fuel hose to the regulator and injector rail, fuel not getting to the engine. So took out the pump again and this time I dipped in the fuel in the bucket and added the power directly, the pump motor moved but guess what, it’s back flowing from where inlet supposed to suck in the fuel to the outlet, this point I believe the fuel pump is damaged somewhat and I think bit of rust in the tank is the problem. I’ve already ordered the pump so hopefully I can at least test to see if anything else is the issue but meantime just wanted to see how you clean the tank inside. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks team.

Are you talking about the condenser fan? It is working as far as I know. I’ll give another look for the fan operation.

Hey Eagle, happy new year. That is correct, when the car is on and when I press the air con button on (or off) there’s no power at the compressor plug. Ok that sounds like another thing I’ll try. Thanks for advice.

Hi team. Dealing with my E46 hvac today. Basically the ac is not blowing cold, not even warm cold. Heater is working fine as well as blower blowing all speed. i have checked the fuses and they are fine and getting power, checked the relays behind fuse boxes and they are ok too. Now only thing is that the ac compressor connector is not getting power when the button is pressed. When I press the button the engine rpm changes, so I’m assuming that the modules are telling to the ac compressor to engage the clutch but no power. I’m assuming that the ac clutch is gone and needs new compressor. But I’m just wondering what’s preventing it from not sending power to the compressor, is it because it’s in the fail safe mode that the modules are not sending power on purpose, or I do have wiring issues? I have tried using the ac recharge can but according to the can and with the gauge telling me, unable to recharge as showing on red warning zone (70psi at low pressure) at needle pointing when the car/ac is on. Haven’t got to test the high side. What’s everyone’s suggestion? Thanks in advance.

Thanks Rag-Top, I’m just waiting for new thermostat and will do another attack on bleeding. Hopefully comes out alright.

So I’ve tested the wirings/fuses/relay and funny enough the relay might have gone as I’m not getting any power. Luckily I had spare relay so I’ve replaced it and I’ve got power coming to the heater valve, run the car and turned the temperature knob from full cold to full hot and back and forth and I could feel the heater valve moving so confirmed it’s working. If the information is correct to get the heater valve open I have to set the temperature setting to cold to make the valve open and bleed the coolant? I’ve done once after I’ve sorted the power issue and seems it’s getting a lot warmer than before, not quite as hot as before but definitely getting hotter. I guess I’ll continued to bleed and check coolant level but for now it’s not overheating and somewhat heater is coming back so it’s good for me.

e30ftw, you are legend. I’ll have a look into this weekend.

Thanks guys. I believe I may found the issue. I’ll have to order new thermostat for the right opening temperature as the current one is set to 78 degrees where original one is 85 degrees. That will sort out the temperature gauge below half way. I just removed the lower panel and the pipe towards the heater core is nice and hot, on the other hand the heater core valve pipe is luke warm. So that’s what’s blocking the flow of the coolant. I’ve looked again but I think it needs to have 12v to open the valve? My next question is can I feed 12v directly to make it open? (I’ll have to do some wiring job) because I don’t really want to open the entire dash if I don’t need to…

Thanks again Eagle, you always help me. So far this is what I’ve done… I’ve swapped the old thermostat which only to find out it’s not opening. I’ve done multiple bleeding, and let it cool, tried again. so have put the one I recently changed couple of months back, and took 3 times to get it calm. But I’m back to where I was, it’s not overheating and seems like I have got the air out, but the needle is never in the middle, more towards colder mark and little heat from heater. I think what I’m gonna do is to look for another thermostat and do water pump/timing belt and do the bleeding again and see what happens. With the heater core valve, it shouldn’t matter whether is on or not as when it’s not connected it should be open anyway? So I can just leave the wires as I’m not getting any power regardless.

No it’s the manual fan with clutch.

Thanks Driftit. So that’s what I’m gonna do after work today. Pre-fill the coolant with one by one and heater core and try bleed it and see if I can have my heater back. And no but now you mentioned it I’ll add the viscous fan clutch with the timing job too.

I’ve put the spare thermostat in, and this time I’m just struggling to bleed as it tries to overheat this time. I think there’s still a lot of air trapped and the way those coolant hoses go I believe I have to manually bleed by disconnecting the each hoses at a time and add the coolant directly to try get as much as air I can?