[humbertob]

Well today I just replaced the brownish coolant on my F30, here are the steps, could help someone, I hope:

1. Place your car securely on ramps
2. Remove the engine under cover, you need to remove all the 8mm bolts holding it in place
3. Remove the 8mm bolt holding the overflow tank, then unlock the 2 tabs holding the overflow tank in place
4. disconnect the upper coolant line from the overflow tank
5. disconnect the coolant level sensor below the overflow tank
6. disconnect the lower coolant line from the overflow tank
7. After you remove the upper and lower coolant lines the coolant will start to drain so be prepared with a bin to catch the old coolant
8. Remove the overflow tank completely and at this time rinse the overflow tank using the garden hose to clean the overflow tank from old coolant and sediments
9. Go back under the engine and unbolt the water pump clamp, be prepared with a bin or recipient under the engine, masive coolant amount will drain at this time
10. release the coolant hose from the water pump (coolant will drain)
11. after all the coolant is gone, replace the clamp using the attached bolt
12. Replace the under engine cover and all the 8mm bolts that hold it in place
13. Re-attach the lower coolant line to the overflow tank
14. Re-connect the coolant level sensor to the overflow tank
15. Re-attach the upper coolant line to the overflow tank
16. Replace the bolt that holds the overflow tank in place (8mm bolt)
17. Remove the bleeding screw (black screw) from the overflow tank
18. Using 50/50 BMW Blue Coolant/Distilled Water fill the overflow tank slowly until the coolant starts to escape from the bleeding hole at the overflow tank
19. Re-attach the bleeding screw
20. Replace the overflow tank cap
21. start the ignition on the car, without starting the engine
22. select the hottest temp on the a/c unit
23. select the lowest fan speed on the a/c unit
24. push the accelerator down to the floor for 10 seconds
25. you'll start hearing that the water pump starts working, it's bleeding the coolant system for you
26. Wait for 12-13 minutes until the water pump completes the bleeding cycle
27. You have changed your Coolant on your F30 at this point !

Thanks for all your support !

[mr_kay]

Perfect. Thank you. I was looking how to do this for when I do my oil housing gaskets this weekend. Up until this morning I was trying to test to see if the bleeding procedure worked on my car and I couldn't hear anything to confirm if it was running...Good to know I was doing the correct procedure.

[mr_kay]

Any reason to drain the reservoir tank first and not the water pump connection? Seems like it might be less messy that way.

[humbertob]

Originally Posted by mr_kay

Any reason to drain the reservoir tank first and not the water pump connection? Seems like it might be less messy that way.

"The order of the factors does not alter the product !" The only reason that I first removed the overflow tank was to clean and rinse the tank from sediments and old coolant, but if yours is clean, you can even keep it attached, on my case there were sediments and I did prefer to clean the overflow tank before new coolant was poured.

[mr_kay]

Originally Posted by humbertob

"The order of the factors does not alter the product !" The only reason that I first removed the overflow tank was to clean and rinse the tank from sediments and old coolant, but if yours is clean, you can even keep it attached, on my case there were sediments and I did prefer to clean the overflow tank before new coolant was poured.

Gotcha. Thanks!

[rugbyfool89]

Just wanted to say thank you. Pretty cool how the car bleeds itself.

[jdr78569]

Do you have picture on how to unclip the lower hose? I stopped at that point since it was getting late and i didn't see how i could unclip it. I know BMW coolant is "lifetime" and mines clean i just wanted to do a drain and fill

[reyoasian]

What's the spec of the coolant required?

[Sanelko]

Originally Posted by jmb2027

What's the spec of the coolant required?

I think it's BMW N60069.0 (blue in color). Other than the BMW coolant, the only other ones I know of are Pentosin and Rowe.

[_bdiddyb_]

It was a bitch to unclip the hose from the water pump to drain the coolant. What ever happened to the drain plug at the bottom of the radiator??? C'mon BMW !!! Bleeding procedure was very smart.

On another car maker, the Lexus IS350 was completely opposite. Draining was a cinch, but bleeding procedure was asinine.

[vifferfun]

Thanks so much for posting these instructions! I just had to bleed my system (after replacing a blown coolant hose) so I just had to complete steps 17+. It was really easy!

[GTBrandon]

Any idea on how much coolant the system took total? I'm wondering whether to use one or two (or more) Gallons of the BMW coolant after mixing with water

[Busa1]

Originally Posted by GTBrandon

Any idea on how much coolant the system took total? I'm wondering whether to use one or two (or more) Gallons of the BMW coolant after mixing with water

I would like to know this also because I plan on flushing the coolant soon.

[flyt100]

I just did this today by removing the two hoses on the water pump on my F30 335xi. I used less than 2 gallons of mixed coolant (so one gallon of the BMW full strength coolant was enough)

[M Smurf]

Looking to start doing this myself as well.

So no need for any special tools such as an air-powered refill tool?

[sspade]

Can someone confirm this is the exact same process for N20 engine?

[stroker15]

Originally Posted by sspade

Can someone confirm this is the exact same process for N20 engine?

Here's a good video on how to do it. Looks like the same procedure.

[pongkin]

bleeding the system where would the air escape since you screw back the bleed screw and cap?

[stroker15]

Originally Posted by pongkin

bleeding the system where would the air escape since you screw back the bleed screw and cap?

I'm assuming it just pressures up the empty space in the overflow tank. I also bet the cap on the overflow tank isn't air tight.

[stroker15]

There is a shop here that you can rent a lift and all their tools for $30 an hour. They have a coolant exchange machine. I'm going to try and do it with the machine, and skip pulling hoses. From what I can tell, the machine sucks out and adds new coolant at the same time, and you just keep going till the coolant coming out into the machine is new coolant. Using the machine is supposed to take 10 minutes. I'll report back next week how that went. If anyone else has tried doing a coolant exchange with the machine, let me know how that went.

Thanks.

[stroker15]

Originally Posted by stroker15

There is a shop here that you can rent a lift and all their tools for $30 an hour. They have a coolant exchange machine. I'm going to try and do it with the machine, and skip pulling hoses. From what I can tell, the machine sucks out and adds new coolant at the same time, and you just keep going till the coolant coming out into the machine is new coolant. Using the machine is supposed to take 10 minutes. I'll report back next week how that went. If anyone else has tried doing a coolant exchange with the machine, let me know how that went.

Thanks.

Hmm, I just watched a video on how to use the coolant machine, it looks like using the machine may not be possible or may be more of a pain than pulling the hoses. I'll find out when I get to the shop and see how their machine works. If anyone has used a machine to do it, let me know.

[BigJack75]

So what about all the old coolant in the motor. Is there a way to flush this out?