BMW Z3 Water Pump Failure

New pump, fan blades, fan clutch, both drive belts were replaced about 400 miles ago.

Wondering if it was a faulty fan blade?

Hi Gary, sorry for the incident:(, I red about a similar situation (on a similar model), on a French forum: nobody could find why! His radiator was also damaged....
In case the water pump it's ok , which is more than likely, and being a new part, I suggest to have returned the fan to the provider; seems to me as a production fault! Did you recovered the broken parts? Looks like they hit something or not?
 
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I haven't had chance to find all the bits of blades yet. I will look at them when the radiator comes out tomorrow.

I can only think it was a faulty blade but the chances of proving it are going to be slim.
 
I haven't had chance to find all the bits of blades yet. I will look at them when the radiator comes out tomorrow.

I can only think it was a faulty blade but the chances of proving it are going to be slim.
It would certainly appear to be the fan/blades assembly which were at fault I think. Who was the supplier Gary? If they supplied all the parts that you replaced I can't see how they wouldn't accept responsibility for the fan and replace it at the very least. After all you could name and shame them here!
 
The blade came from gsfcarparts.com who I haven't previously used before.
To be fair Gary we don't use GSF that much since Andrew Page and more recently Euro Car Parts came into Lincoln. But they are/were usually good with dealing with faulty parts. Got to be worth having a go to see what they offer? Good luck mate.
 
rotten luck Gaz, hope you get it sorted quickly, unfortunately as I have recently had re-confirmed trouble does not do us the courtesy of arriving in even sized packages..

:banghead:
 
Whipped the rad off for you Gaz, surprised to see how worn the belt was!
The one I took of my 2.2i was in a similar state to that, so I replaced both!

Thanks for sorting me a replacement radiator so quickly! You are an absolute top man :scorecard:
 
Are you going to do the fan delete Gary ?
 
Are you going to do the fan delete Gary ?
May do eventually, but for now I need a working car.

Just ordered a new OEM fan blade from Soper BMW Parts, with discount and free postage not much more £ than the cheap exploding variety I bought earlier.
 
Ahh so was the fan you fitted a non oem one ?
 
Ahh so was the fan you fitted a non oem one ?
It was what gsf car parts had in stock. Let's hope their water pumps come from another supplier :nailbiting:
 
This is the fan blade I removed...
bmw-z3-fan-blade-broken-1.webp


This is what the radiator does now...
View: http://youtu.be/LFP53OUmTnM
 
I think it is really strange that ALL the blades have broken in the same spot, I take it there was no obstructions in the way i.e. sound proofing under the bonnet hanging down? Are there any marks on the blade edges to indicate if they hit something?

P.S. nice graphic at the end of the clip ;)
 
I think it is really strange that ALL the blades have broken in the same spot, I take it there was no obstructions in the way i.e. sound proofing under the bonnet hanging down?
The only thing I can think (other than dodgy part) is that the fan cowl came loose. I'm going to try and put the bits back together if I can to look for obvious damage.

P.S. nice graphic at the end of the clip ;)
Specially commissioned for jazzing up Zorg YouTube videos. Got a few different ones, and this was a good excuse to try one of them out!
 
The only thing I can think (other than dodgy part) is that the fan cowl came loose. I'm going to try and put the bits back together if I can to look for obvious damage.

This would be a good exercise just for piece of mind.
 
Sorry to be such a video geek Gary, but what did you use on the graphic title at the end of the clip?
 
Sorry to be such a video geek Gary, but what did you use on the graphic title at the end of the clip?
The animation was done by someone else, but I added the text using Windows Movie Maker.
 
The breaks look really crystalline, which would suggest it is old and dried out, which is probably a sign of an old part stored outside of its packaging for a long time. nylon needs moisture to be supple and plyable, hopefully your new one came in a plastic bag and is not too old.
 
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