Overheating Warning Light has come on

vicwatson

Driving this evening for about 4 miles and temp gauge shot up to the limit and red light came on, slowed right down and toddled home and the light went off but the gauge stayed up to the limit.

Anyone tell me under what circumstances this light would come on? Was serviced not 6 weeks ago and passed NCT - E39 BMW.

Thanks in advance

S28382

Your engine is overheating id check your coolant fairly lively or you wont have an engine anymore.

vicwatson

S28382 wrote: »

Your engine is overheating id check your coolant fairly lively or you wont have an engine anymore.

Coolant - where do I find that?

Is it ok to drive 1.5 miles to the garage?

sungear

I wouldn't, check the owners manual and open the bonnet,

vicwatson

Any other opinions on whether I'd do damage driving it 1.5 miles to the garage?

TrailerBob

Could be a coolant leak, or could also be that your water pump just failed. Either way you shouldn't drive the car. I have towed cars on tickover for short distances in cases like this without any effect. But get it seen to straight away

dr.fuzzenstein

^^^
That. If the coolant is low you might get away with it, but it's not worth it. Even topping up with water is better than nothing. If your coolant is gone, I wouldn't drive 5 meters in it.
If coolant is full, waterpump (as stated above) or maybe radiator silted.
Does your insurance has recovery included? Worth checking out at this time.

keithsfleet

With all due respect if your don't know where the coolant is then you won't diagnose the problem. Wait till the engine completely cools down, 2-3 hours and then drive it to the garage. If the temp needle starts rising up past the half way mark pull over and let it cool down. Driving with the temp needle anywhere past halfway will cause huge damage over a short period. When driving it use low revs and high gears.

sungear

vicwatson wrote: »

Any other opinions on whether I'd do damage driving it 1.5 miles to the garage?

Did you open the bonnet yet? whats the coolant level like? maybe its a faulty sensor/electronics, any signs of recent leaking after you stopped, or evaporating fluids? or maybe you have full coolant and its a pump as someone said.
Any change in performance when you continued to drive?

I had steam pour out from the bonnet once, I pulled up immediately, preferred not to take a chance, was a broken fitting, coolant leaked/was pumped out.

Stheno

vicwatson wrote: »

Any other opinions on whether I'd do damage driving it 1.5 miles to the garage?

Yes, you may very well, driving along one day, the temp shot up, next thing bang, smoke from the engine and the car stopped dead in the road.

Have you got any home assist/breakdown insurance?

vicwatson

sungear wrote: »

Did you open the bonnet yet? whats the coolant level like? maybe its a faulty sensor/electronics, any signs of recent leaking after you stopped, or evaporating fluids? or maybe you have full coolant and its a pump as someone said.
Any change in performance when you continued to drive?

I had steam pour out from the bonnet once, I pulled up immediately, preferred not to take a chance, was a broken fitting, coolant leaked/was pumped out.

Didn't check the coolant, no signs of leaking on the ground, no evaporation, no changes in performance

Will call the garage in a.m. and see what they think, he might come down to suss it out for me to save me driving it.

Alanstrainor

vicwatson wrote: »

Didn't check the coolant, no signs of leaking on the ground, no evaporation, no changes in performance

Will call the garage in a.m. and see what they think, he might come down to suss it out for me to save me driving it.

This engines heat up very quickly, even 1.5 miles would be almost enough to get it to operating temperature if all was well, when not it would heat up extremely quickly.

Water pumps are a known weak point on these cars. If you haven't noticed any massive leaks, and I had to take a wild guess, it would be a failed water pump.

Sure keep us updated OP.

dharn

expansion bottles are a weak point on those but if that went you would have steam everywhere but as the car has gotten very hot make sure to keep an eye on that area from now on

Leonard Hofstadter

I would get it towed. Those engines are notoriously bad at dealing with overheating - the head warps way too easily in them. Many mechanics will tell you that a BMW will never run right once it's overheated if they're left running for a sufficiently long period of time.

In fact, I would be very worried OP that you could have done more damage already than you realise to that engine.

Of course, it's no good now, but this is why BMWs need the cooling system overhauled after 10 years/100,000 miles:)!

Get that engine thoroughly checked out, hopefully you'll have gotten away with only changing things like the thermostat:)!

vicwatson

Spoke to Mechanic this a.m. and he said it would be ok to drive the 0.5 miles up to him (thought it was longer), when I switched on the engine the guage went straight up into the red BUT the light didn't come on, by the time I drove the half mile the gauge gradually fell back to the left and then stayed there !!!

keithsfleet

vicwatson wrote: »

Spoke to Mechanic this a.m. and he said it would be ok to drive the 0.5 miles up to him (thought it was longer), when I switched on the engine the guage went straight up into the red BUT the light didn't come on, by the time I drove the half mile the gauge gradually fell back to the left and then stayed there !!!

Could just be a faulty temp sender if the gauge was in the red straight away. Let us know what the garage says.

vicwatson

keithsfleet wrote: »

Could just be a faulty temp sender if the gauge was in the red straight away. Let us know what the garage says.

New radiator and some type of pipe. grrrr

vicwatson

vicwatson wrote: »

...........grrrr

Could be a lot worse

dharn

vicwatson wrote: »

New radiator and some type of pipe. grrrr

be careful i had an e 39 thought it was just a rad, as far as i can work out the electric fansensor/switch must have shorted and damaged the ecu, so just a bursted expansion bottle at the start, turned in to a nightmare, so keep an eye on her