Montreal Blue 1996 BMW 328is

[*insertusernamehere*]

Yeah when I was bleeding it again there were a crap ton of big bubbles. All in my face and shiz, blah!

One reason I went to the euro cooling system setup on all my E36s almost immediately was the inanely stupid bleed procedure

...I'm guessing this one doesn't require bleeding? Why don't they all just have that? The Europeans get all the nice things.. :roll:

[D_Eclipse9916]

Yeah when I was bleeding it again there were a crap ton of big bubbles. All in my face and shiz, blah!

One reason I went to the euro cooling system setup on all my E36s almost immediately was the inanely stupid bleed procedure

...I'm guessing this one doesn't require bleeding? Why don't they all just have that? The Europeans get all the nice things.. :roll:

If it makes you feel better, E30s have it, and E46s have it... :lol: Oh wait, that didnt make you feel better?

[*insertusernamehere*]

If it makes you feel better, E30s have it, and E46s have it...

[Sully]

If it makes you feel better, I did the entire system(and I mean entire system) on my e36 including a new reservoir only to strip the bleed screw on both the reservoir and the screw side during one of the last of a ton of bleeding procedures

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[*insertusernamehere*]

^That does sound like a horrible pain updabutt

I am currently waiting on weather to become somewhat decent (no rain) so i can take the car for a spin, fandangle the fan shroud around and see what's leaving a trail running down the driver side of the radiator to the ground. Spotted a tiny little puddle under the car yesterday. I just hope i don't have to drain, refill and rebleed the whole thing again -_-

[SlimKlim]

Which side is the radiator drain on? Might just need to snug up the hose clamps on that side too. When I did my radiator swap I spent about a week chasing clamps that needed to be retightened or gaskets that should've been replaced in the first place.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Radiator drain is driver side but the coolant's coming from up higher. Its on the actual radiator itself. When i take it for a spin and get the coolant circulating I'm gonna check for all that. The shroud is just blocking the view of everything right now. Hopefully I don't need to buy a new radiator. What parts of the radiator usually leak or go bad?

[SlimKlim]

The plastic sides of the radiator will form hairline cracks and start seeping coolant after a certain amount of time, but you said it was relatively new right? If it's less than 5 years old it should be fine. Maybe the upper hose connection on that side needs to be snugged up a bit. :dunno:

If you do have to replace the radiator, I got an all-aluminum unit from ebay for pretty damn cheap. Larger than the OEM one and no plastic parts to break.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I don't trust BMW plastic radiators. Although I havent had a plastic radiator in anything but my truck since 2006.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Found it. It's the radiator. Its squirting a stream from where the little horizontal tubes connect with the inner side of yhe radiator....where its metal. Bravo car..bravo.

You can see some bubbles in this pic:


And you can kinda sorta see the stream and where it shoots with this one:


Its a very tiny hole that you can't even see. Any possible fixes? :dunno:

Worst case i buy a new radiator but why in the world would it leak there? Just so strange considering the parts that typically go bad. Glad i even found the leak though, could be worse situation.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Also, now that the fan is removed, it actually feels smoother. Not necessarily faster, but it feels like it accelerates with more ease. Can't decide if its just placebo effect...or if the day was just nice...or if its actually the fan removal. Less fan noise too. Either way i like it

[nismosam]

Get some black Plasti-Dip and let's do the roof soon!

[Jake]

Also, now that the fan is removed, it actually feels smoother. Not necessarily faster, but it feels like it accelerates with more ease. Can't decide if its just placebo effect...or if the day was just nice...or if its actually the fan removal. Less fan noise too. Either way i like it

The e-fan puts much less drag on the motor compared to the clutch fan. I'm not surprised in how that feels.

At least you caught the radiator before it catastrophically asploded! See if you can find an all-aluminum radiator for cheap, then you'll never replace it ever again.

And +1 to Sam's Plastidip recommendation :thumbup:

[D_Eclipse9916]

Also, now that the fan is removed, it actually feels smoother. Not necessarily faster, but it feels like it accelerates with more ease. Can't decide if its just placebo effect...or if the day was just nice...or if its actually the fan removal. Less fan noise too. Either way i like it

The e-fan puts much less drag on the motor compared to the clutch fan. I'm not surprised in how that feels.

At least you caught the radiator before it catastrophically asploded! See if you can find an all-aluminum radiator for cheap, then you'll never replace it ever again.

And +1 to Sam's Plastidip recommendation :thumbup:

+1 to everything but the plastidip..

Ebay Aluminum radiator FTW.

[*insertusernamehere*]

If i got tints a black roof may not look too bad...hmmmm..meehh idk...but considering it already looks like shit ...

[SlimKlim]

Vinyl wrap would look much better than matte black plastidip IMO, if you were going to do it. Both would be cheaper than having new clear sprayed on.

[JPolen01]

If the roof now has different "levels" due from the paint peeling off, vinyl won't look good on it. Vinyl takes the contour of the surface so you will see the dips/lowered areas where paint has peeled off. Dip will be better because it won't show where the paint has peeled off.

[Sully]

If the roof now has different "levels" due from the paint peeling off, vinyl won't look good on it. Vinyl takes the contour of the surface so you will see the dips/lowered areas where paint has peeled off. Dip will be better because it won't show where the paint has peeled off.

Not entirely true. Dip is pretty much paint and will probably amplify the fact that the levels are not even. It doesn't really build and if you try and make it, it will look like crap. That said, a can of dip is $7 and you could probably get away with one or two and can apply it yourself.

Vinyl will cost more than $14 and a sheet that big would be a huge pain in the ass to install if you haven't done many vinyl sheet installs

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[*insertusernamehere*]

Yeah I was wondering about that with the paint/wrap. Can you apply wrap if the roof is sanded? Or does it need a layer of paint to stick to? I'm sure sanding will definitely aid the dip, but if its sanded I'm less inclined to spray...no real paint underneath. Vinyl, if done well, seems more sturdy.

[SlimKlim]

You could do either if it was sanded, all you'd want to do was scuff it down to even out the differences between where the clear is missing and where it isn't, you're not going down to bare metal. Dip would definitely be easier to apply than vinyl, and I think you can do satin or glossy colors with it now, right?