Anyone ever seen a waterpump do this?

[dville_gt]

This is on my e36 bmw. Drove into work today, was hearing some belt whine (but honestly it was so faint I couldn't tell if it was my car or not). As I got close to work I started to smell coolant (not overheating though). Pulled into my space in the parking garage and by the time I got around to the hood it had puked a gallon or more of coolant from the waterpump area.



Looks like the pump shaft is broken or bent or something. There used to be adequate clearance between the threaded end of the pump (from where the factory mechanical fan was) and the electrical fan. Not any more.

How could this stay connected yet be at this crazy angle?

[Baron Von Crowder]

Bearing failed

[BP]

They have a plastic impeller and eventually they'll break. I can't see the photos (damned websense) but I've seen plenty of those cars with fan blades sticking through the hood.

[homealone]

They have a plastic impeller and eventually they'll break. I can't see the photos (damned websense) but I've seen plenty of those cars with fan blades sticking through the hood.

Yep. its very common. I got a great deal on my 5 because the WP let go and Moritz wanted $2800 to fix it.

Autozone, WP and belt, $60.

[franks]

I would not drive it like that anymore if you loose too much water the guage won't show it overheating and with the shaft bearing being out it will leak almost as fast as you can poor it in.

[Bad A$$ Coupe]

yea, have one in my shop right now for the samething bad over heat and now needs a head gasket..........

[dville_gt]

Bearings were no where to be found. Can't believe it didn't eat up part of the insides of the block actually. Also had the worst tow experience of my life.

On another crappy note, once I got it home I pulled it apart to find that the pulley must have started eating it self away since it was cocked. It literally ate the entire 6th rib off. I called Moritz BMW (closest dealer) and they had one in stock. My g/f was on her way home but with the weather I knew it was going to be a close call if she got there before 6pm, so I ask the parts manager if I could simply pay over the phone via c.c. and they either leave it on the door step (I knew if she was late it'd be by one a couple of minutes) or if they could leave it with a service writer (they are open until 7) or a sales person (they are open until 9). No dice, guy had absolutely no sympathy for my situation, customer service what?

Anyway, here is what I am driving around on right now, just hoping it will hold on until I can get the new pulley.

[dville_gt]

Oh, and a couple of other tidbits.

This was the "updated" BMW pump, so it had a metal impeller.

The threaded part of the water pump ate a little chunk of my SPAL electric fan (doesn't appear to have affected it performance wise).

Thankfully I deleted the motor driven fan because it would have most definitely wreaked havoc on my radiator/accessories/who knows what else.

I went with an autozone (duralast) replacement, I would have rather gone with a BMW replacement (although look how great this one held up), but I needed the car today and the dealer wanted over 2x what I could one for online.