01-12-2008, 03:18 PM
![[Image: m3broke.jpg]](http://www.ojacko.com/junk/m3broke.jpg)
So, I was driving up a mountain heading to Santa Cruz last night and felt the car stutter. Then I saw smoke start pouring out of the front driver's side of the hood. Pulled off immediately and checked for warnings in the car. None. Temp was ok. Popped the hood and found that my upper radiator hose had popped off. Shit, I thought. I just replaced the entire cooling system on the car. I had 50/50 mix in the the trunk along with a toolkit so I reattached the hose, filled the coolant back up, checked the temp gauge and turned it over. Ran to the front, coolant level was down a bit, so I filled it up a bit... ran back, and saw the temp gauge creeping up ever so slightly. Shit. Turned it off. That's how it ended up in the pic. I had it all worked out. I was on a steep incline and I couldn't fill the coolant reservoir enough. I had it dropped off at a BMW shop in Santa Cruz and didn't leave the key.
Got up this morning, and came back to the car. Checked coolant now that it was level, and it was down a bit. No leaks or anything under the car, so I filled it up and gave it a start. Temp was rising slowly as usual, and coolant level was staying ok. I gave it a bit of a rev to 2k to start the bleeding process. Checked the coolant again, and it was ok. Came back, temp was still below operating temp so I turned the heater on. Something smelled funny. I shut it off. Turned the heater off. Then I noticed the smoke. It was smoking *ever so slightly* from the back of the engine (kind of over the passenger's feet).
The car is waiting at the shop now for them to look at it first thing Monday morning. I can't do anything since they have the keys, but does anyone have any idea what it could be? I thought the tstat might be stuck or the water pump not working, but then the smoke... I don't know what it was from but the temp wasn't even up. Maybe something heater related? Why would that blow a coolant hose? I have no idea. Help

Car stats:
1998 M3
97k on odo
New radiator, t-stat, t-stat housing, water pump, hoses all done 3 months ago.
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