White Pony

If I didn't have enough things not working or wrong with my '87 924s, while sitting in traffic today I watched the temperature needle climb to the red. I pulled into a gas station, checked the fuse (not blown) treid to pull the relay (stuck tight) and then had to sit for 45 minutes until it cooled down enough for me to top of the overflow tank and drive home with the heat on full blast, windows down, in a rainstorm. Thank god for heater cores and highway driving.

I know for a fact either the relay is bad, the temp sensing unit is bad, or my car is pissed at me because I was at the time shopping for it's replacement. Any ideas? It gets parked until I can fixie, at lest my parents will let me use their spare car...

I just found a 1998 528i BMW with a 5 speed that is screaming my name right now...

Kurt R

Not a good sign if the relay is stuck. The contacts might be corroded. It's easy enough to test the temp sensor, just pull the wires off it and run a jumper wire between them. If you hear the relay click and the fans start up then you know it's the sensor. Otherwise get the relay out and check for power there, then swap in another relay. You can use the jumper trick at the sensor instead of starting the car and waiting for it to get warm to trigger the relay and the fans.

Vjgtrybno1

That is a great year/model for BMW - I had a 97-528 and loved it...

Not like I love my S2, of course!

White Pony

Whurr bouts is this temp sensor in relation to other things?

I'm sure I could find it fairly easy but it's raining and I canna go start fighting with it. I may actually have an extra fan relay as well, the PO had a relay in the dash, i took it out cause it was huge...

And yeah, i'm really considering that bimmer. It's about as fast, handles about as well (not as much feel to the steering at all though ) and probably doesn't leak 5000 places... I HATE ALL THE ELECTRIC GIZMOS! All that isn't there is a giant servo to pop you out of the car when you open the door.

dleano944

thermostat

Kurt R

Back of the radiator, right under the upper radiator hose. Driver's side.

White Pony

Thanks, Kurt! You are the man ! I goota get an early start tomorrow and see if I can fix the old girl up... Get my good old multimeter out and test some circuits/ relays I hope that extra relay is the one I need.

On a side note, maybe I should take some tranquilizers or something, because the question, "Buy a 528i or fix up my baby?" is driving me completely nuts right now.

I just joined 924board for good measure...

Swagger93

Just a bit on the slow side. However they drive so nice and look so pretty.

White Pony

Well, I started to work on it again and it started to rain again. Screw this sloppy weather.

Scuba Steve

My '87 924S is much more reliable than a coworker's '98 528i. She always has cooling system issues... her water pump went out and a few months after that the upper hose broke off the radiator. And some sensor in the transmission went out that wound up costing about $1,000 to fix.

White Pony

I know, It's tyipical to replace the ENTIRE cooling system every 75k-110k miles.

As well as all the shock absorbers and the water pump. WTF is that, like some kind of Chinese crap?

Does anyone know how to replace the temp sensor? My relay is good, and I bridged the two wires after removing them from the sensor. The fan starts right up. Thanks Kurt! I relaized it would have taken me hours to find that out w/o your help. I may have to do this but...

The connections were corroded as hell, they were like the statue of liberty in there I have some terminal cleaner stuff in there now, I'll throw a little grease in the terminals too before I put them on... Maybe it will work.

I just hope this sensor isnt bad. Now Iave to find the bolt that I lost in the lawn because I have no garage.

White Pony

My temp sensor is gone. The car heated up till 3/4 hot and above without the fan kicking in.

If I get no replies on this soon I'll make a thread. Thanks.

Kurt R

The temp sensor just threads into the radiator. I think it's around $15 - $20 to replace. Drain the coolant then you might have to take off the upper radiator hose or the fans to get access to it, depending on what tools you have.

cjeckert

Just a fyi these cars are not meant to idle at ALL especialy the 924S basicly it just dosnt have the airflow to cool that big 2.5 in sitting traffic sucking all the exhaust from other cars. Even my 24S which i know has a new water pump radiator and total flush will creap into the red now the trick is if ur in trafic just give it a lil gas to get it to about 1300rpm. The increase in flow to the radiator will really knock the temps down as the waterpumps are not very efficient at there lower rpm band.

White Pony

Kurt you are the man. I will buy the temp sensor, some spark plug wires, and the assorted stuff and then I will be ready to roll.

Cjeckert, it kina figures that a car designed to race from the factory would not take the time to consider everything runs too well at low rpm's.