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How to Diagnose Coolant Leak BMW E36
77K views
Jan 29, 2023
This is a basic informative video on finding coolant leaks on a BMW. I discuss how to identify whether you have a leak or not, where the most common places for leaks are, and how to find them. This is a basic tutorial video for newer DIY owners. **This description contains affiliate links. If you buy a product through my custom link, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.**
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Hey viewers this is E36 Fanatic Steven here and today I'm going to do a basic video on
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a coolant diagnosis a coolant leak diagnosis. What you see behind me is a BMW 323 I
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in 1998 and this is my little brother's car and it's leaking coolant like crazy. I have a
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little process of finding coolant leaks typically. So typically what I do or
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typically with coolant leaks there's a couple different types and there's a
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couple different areas where it can leak from. Either it'll leak when the
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engine is running or when you're when you're when you're driving around it'll
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start leaking or you can have a leak where the car can just be sitting in on
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the leak. Now it's a little more difficult to find the ones where it only leaks when the engine is running
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because you sometimes have to be driving it around or you have to be having a foot on the RPMs
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because that forces the coolant to puts more pressure on the coolant and the water pump to move around faster
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Sometimes that's the only time when coolant will leak. Now here I'm just going to show you a few different areas
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where coolant will typically leak from. And this is from my experience in fixing coolant leaks
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There's certain areas that tend to leak a lot more than others, especially if you haven't replaced, kept up with your maintenance schedule on replacing parts
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So on the BMW E36s if you have one of the six cylinder ones you not going to have much space really to look in here But your thermostat housing unit is right here and you have your upper radiator hose which is here
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And then you have your lower radiator hose, which is right over here
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Now, some of the most common areas for coolant to leak out of over time is these coolant, the upper and lower coolant radiator
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hose. Where the clamps hook up to the thermostat and to the radiator, that will be a big cause of where
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sometimes coolant will leak because over time these clamps break down or the rubber hoses just
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break down over time and you'll start to develop a leak from there. And especially with this lower
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radiator hose, it can be somewhat difficult to ascertain whether the hoses are left
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leaking or not, especially when they often only leak under when the engine is running and under
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pressure. That's why from time to time what I'll do is if I'm having trouble finding a leak
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I'll set. I'll line up paper towels underneath the motor after driving it and just set them there
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and I'll check back at maybe an hour or so and ascertain whether the car
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where the car exactly is leaking. You can get a better idea of where it's leaking from
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if you put some paper towels on it and see exactly where it's leaking
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To identify for certain whether you have a leak it pretty simple to do You have your cooling expansion tank right here and you have a line which says cold or cold cold Now that is where your coolant level is supposed to be
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whenever the car, the engine is cold. Now what you do is you take a look at if you think you have
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a coolant leak if your car's overheating or something, you take a look at your reservoir. Of course
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when the engine is cold, you never look at your reservoir. when the engine is hot because you can have coolant spew out at you
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But you take a look and look at the water level on the inside
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and you match it to where it is on the side of the reservoir
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If it's really low, then you may very well have a coolant leak and that may be your problem
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So a few other areas where coolant can leak from. Over time, your radiator can actually break down
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breakdown and you can actually get a coolant from your radiator. That's less common than what I
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typically see with these radiator hoses, but it can happen. Also, as you can see right here
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sometimes the reservoir, the threads will get messed up, either on the reservoir or on the cap
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and you can have coolant actually leaking out from around that area. So another thing with E36 is
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that's that high mileage E36s can have a leak coming from is unfortunately these E36s have a
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coolant connector pipe that runs underneath the air intake manifold and unfortunately over time those go bad as well and they start leaking And when they start leaking it a big issue because they can cause they can get a
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lot worse very quickly and because they're very hard to reach. So that's just a few different areas where coolant can leak from
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And the biggest thing to find a leak is to basically just feel around the whole
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in different areas, the different areas when you're trying to look for your leak
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Test, check out your car as soon as you stop driving it. Take a look to see if you can find
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anywhere where there's fresh water or of course cooling is typically a light green color
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So wherever there's a light green liquid around the motor area, that's where your
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leaks probably come from. And if all else fails and you can't find your coolant leak
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The last option to go ahead and do is to just buy some dye for it, which would be probably
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a good idea anyways. They sell coolant dye that'll color it a different color like orange or red or something
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a very bright color so you can see it very obviously. And that'll help you just find your leak if you're having trouble finding it
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Now if your car is overheating and you're not leaking coolant, you're not actually leaking
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cooling, then that would lead to a different diagnosis. That could mean a bad thermostat, a bad water
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pump, a bad, your radiator could be clogged, or you could have a bad auxiliary fan right here
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So I hope this video helped. If it did, please like, comment, and subscribe, and thank you
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Y'all have a good one
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