What does it mean? By November 2018 I got the water pump early warning on my dash. The one where you get the red engine overheat (but the engine is not overheating) warning and the car goes into limp mode for a few minutes before going back to normal. Then in December 2018 my engine fan would come on very loud when the car was stopped at a red light or put into park after short drives even if the engine was still cold. January 15th, 2019 the car (at 56k miles) was taken to a BMW Dealership to get the pump replaced proactively. I was told the water pump fails every 50k to 60k miles on this car (not sure for N54 engines or other BMW vehicles with N55 engines) so the BMW Dealership warrants future replacement of the water pump and labor for free for the lifetime of the car once the work is done and paid for to replace the original water pump at a qualifying BMW Dealership Service center. It was $1400 for the replacement (parts/labor/taxes) compared to the $800 to $1000 other shops were looking to charge. You can also opt to DIY it spending about $400 to $600 for the parts however the water pump is located under the car and replacing it required hoisting the car up and working from underneath after removing drive train, suspension and xDrive components that will be in the way to accessing the pump. Work also includes a coolant flush and refill.
BACKGROUND:
I had no sign of leaks before driving 24 miles Saturday morning (32 F degrees/Sunny and no rain for the weather) to my parent's house.
I parked for a minute and came back to the car to go run errands when I saw a coin size puddle and an active leak of cold blue fluid from right behind driver side fog lamp.
Because it was ice cold to the touch I initially thought it was washer fluid from a leaking headlamp nozzle. I did hit a few nasty pot holes right before and I also washed the windshield and the headlamp nozzles sprayed the headlamps during the drive.
However later that day with the engine cold after parking for a few hours I manage to get a closer look around and under the engine and I believe the liquid is coolant not washer fluid.
Also my coolant was not at max and took about 2 ounces to fill back up.
But the mystery is my splash shield looks bone dry from above and I can see where anything is leaking coolant. So I suspect where ever it is leaking it is not pooling on the splash shield but leaking directly to the ground.
But at what point inside and around a warm engine would ice cold coolant be flowing?
I've dealt with warm engine coolant on my previous M54 engine and it was always warm to cool when flowing at it's coldest this was an ice cold drip.
see video:
Car has 53,000 miles / prod. date 5/2011 335i xDrive N55 engine without the oil cooler set up.
