[Enabled]

Originally Posted by capt_slow

Looks like a new-design EGR cooler and intake manifold (if damaged). No parts are available yet, so I may need to come back at a later time when they arrive.

Dealer did look at the dropping coolant levels. Car passed another pressure test and they diagnosed the leak as coming from the connector in the expansion tank. At this point, I'm getting a new EGR cooler regardless, so I'm ok with this.

Get this fixed right away. VWs used to have this issue and would migrate coolant up the wire all the way to the instrument cluster and destroy that as well.

[capt_slow]

Originally Posted by Enabled

Get this fixed right away. VWs used to have this issue and would migrate coolant up the wire all the way to the instrument cluster and destroy that as well.

I suspect you're referring to this

Dealer is replacing the tank in addition to the EGR cooler. Although I'm not sure if they inspected the harness. Leak does look like it's in the very early stages. If I recall correctly, the harness that plugs into that connector is quite short and goes to the engine.

[DailyMsportF31]

Brought mine in for a mystery slow “low coolant” leak. I bought the car in May of 2021 and just got low coolant indication couple days ago. Put 20,000 km since purchased in May. Car was bought from bmw dealer with pre-inspection done, and supposedly all fluids topped off at that time. Background, car is 2017 F31 328D xdrive with N47. Bought with 80,000km and currentlt has 102,000km. Was bought off lease and had all service performed and EGR cooler rechecked for recall in 2019 at 46,000km, was reportedly passed ok and did not need replacement.

Back to low coolant message. When I popped the hood after first receiving message, coolant reservoir was bone dry. Had to put in almost 2 litres to replenish reservoir.

No indication of leaks from obvious spots. No drips under the car or pooling. Also noticed twice a burning plastic smell from the car (didn’t think much of it and assumed it was another car on the road). The plastic smell happened before ever seeing the low coolant warning.

Fast forward to today. Took the car into bmw dealer for the egr cooler warranty extension. They quickly reported back that EGR cooler was fine and they discovered I need a water pump and thermostat. When I asked for the reason of their diagnosis they claimed they visually saw a leak. I asked for photos and was provided the below of the thermostat. I see no evidence of a leak.

I then further proded to ask for pics of the inside of the egr cooler as that is what the bulletin requires to decide of the egr cool needs replacing or not. They then told me they did do the boroscope because my car did not throw any codes to indicate egr cooler issue. I said there is no sensor that would detect a slow coolant leaf inside of the cooler, hence why you need to visually inspect it. They fought me round and round about why I was wrong, the cooler was fine, and then hit me with a $212 diagnosing fee for discovering my “faulty thermostat and water pump”.

I told them for other indications of those items being faulty like a symptom of a car overheated (broken water pump), or too long to heat up to operating temp (stuck open thermostat), or over heating (stuck closed thermostat). Their honest answer was that the thermostat was likely only sometimes sticking closed and causing the coolant to slowly evaporate/burn off.

So long story short, they didn’t inspect the EGR safety recall at all, they made some questionable diagnosis of faulty parts, proposed all those items be replaced at a cost of $2000, and let me go on my way with a potentially dangerous car (remember burning plastic smell, possibly the intake manifold melting).

Even the service manager was backing their diagnosis. I’m miffed they can legally somehow avoid doing the proper safety recall work and will be bringing this t the attention of BMW North America to see what can be done.

I’m mechanically handy and have no problem removing the EGR cooler and bringing it to them to show them, but I worry that will be their loophole to “get out” of now needing to fix it.

Anyone else experience push back regarding the recall, or misdiagnosing the issue? Trying to save from the car turning into a catastrophic failure before they will admit fault.

[andreigbs]

Sounds like you need to visit a different dealer; this one fits the typical stealership profile.

[capt_slow]

Originally Posted by andreigbs

Sounds like you need to visit a different dealer; this one fits the typical stealership profile.

This is indeed the case, but the first EGR recall was really shitty in the first place.

A recall implies that there is a fix or improvement to resolve a safety issue with the car, a one-time action that requires no further follow up. The EGR inspection from the first recall was none of that and didnt resolve the scenarios where EGR coolers would fail after inspection. This is probably where the second (new) EGR cooler recall comes in.

The dealer was shitty because they saw the recall was done previously, passed inspection, and therefore does not need to be done again. They didnt want to put in the critical thinking skills to realize that the EGR cooler could fail after the recall was done.

[capt_slow]

Originally Posted by capt_slow

Blackstone just returned me my UOA, sample had about 8K miles on it. Oil was LiquiMoly TopTec 4600. Sodium levels were at 57, which they said was higher than normal and might be a sign of a slow coolant leak.

Second UOA came in. Sample was same oil w/ Ceratec, had about 7800 miles on it. Sodium dropped to 43.

Sodium is lower than last time, but it's still high enough to raise the possibility of a coolant leak, especially since you're noticing visible coolant loss. This isn't very much coolant and it's not causing obvious poor wear, as metals are reading at decent levels for the interval and nickel has made nice progress since last time. If sodium is from something incidental (rather than an ongoing leak) we should continue to see it improving from here. In the meantime, continue monitoring the coolant level and check back in 6K-7K m.

[Enabled]

Originally Posted by capt_slow

This is indeed the case, but the first EGR recall was really shitty in the first place.

A recall implies that there is a fix or improvement to resolve a safety issue with the car, a one-time action that requires no further follow up. The EGR inspection from the first recall was none of that and didnt resolve the scenarios where EGR coolers would fail after inspection. This is probably where the second (new) EGR cooler recall comes in.

The dealer was shitty because they saw the recall was done previously, passed inspection, and therefore does not need to be done again. They didnt want to put in the critical thinking skills to realize that the EGR cooler could fail after the recall was done.

On my dad's X3 28d that passed at 30k miles and then later started losing coolant rapidly, I had to insist to the dealer that they need to scope it. This was even though it was reported as "passing" earlier. It was a mess, but eventually they did it.

[n00bkiller944]

Y'all have inspired me to do a blackstone analysis now...

[capt_slow]

Originally Posted by n00bkiller944

Y'all have inspired me to do a blackstone analysis now...

It's been about 5K since I had the EGR cooler recall done. No change in coolant levels. Oil was changed at the same time as the recall, so after running through 5K I sent a sample to Blackstone. Signs of coolant have dropped off the charts.

Sodium is low enough this time that we've removed the "?" from the antifreeze spot. We'll be sure to let you know if it starts creeping up again (or if potassium, the other marker, starts to make a move), but for now, we don't have any strong suspicions of an ongoing coolant leak for your BMW. Wear levels are still in good shape, decreasing overall, which is fitting for the shorter oil run. You said you hadn't changed the oil filter in a while, and that was fine -- insolubles show it isn't used up yet. The TBN of 5.0 shows lots of
active additive. Go back to 8,000 miles.

[Patric48]

Over the last 4 years I've had the EGR cooler replaced twice and now I see a mist which smells like hot coolant coming from the EGR cooler area. Has anyone noticed anything similar?

[bmwPower99]

After my 1st cooler change I saw green coolant foaming around the egr. They replaced the egr after that. Do the parts actually look new? I would take it back to the dealer asap.