$1,100!??? Does she drive a MINI or a Ferrari? That is absurd.

 

This..

its like 2 hours of labor and an <$200 part at the dealer.

It shouldnt be more than $500-$600.. or do it yourself.. and save the money like I have.

Play hard ball and threaten to take it somewhere else.

 

They quoted 7 hours.

I'm stuck on getting the charge pipe off to get to the motor mount...probably an obvious solution somewhere but I can't find any instructions for getting it off...back tot he car to look some more...

 

They are idiots.. and raping you.

Here is an argument I had about pricing in replacement that explains how many hours it is supposed to take per MINI specs so they are over charging you:

 

OK the friction wheel - how exactly does it loosen/move? I pulled the tab out about 1/2", I see a metal band. Do I just keep pulling after it gets tight, or do I need to do something with the wheel - I don't understand how it works?

Thanks

 

OK answer to my own question.

The friction wheel is completely moved via the pull tab. Mine was 'stuck' at 1/2", I had to use needle nose pliers on it to leverage it a bit more than it moved freely. Simply pulling it out extends the friction wheel downward, releasing moves it back up. Just pull it out while you remove the pulley from the water pump.

On another note - DO NOT buy the GRAF pump it does NOT fit. It bolts up fine but then you discover the spindle shaft extends 1/2" more than the OEM, leaving no space to slide the pulley past and mount. Now I have to take this back off and get an OEM.

 

Oh and answer on the charge pipe - it doesn't need to be removed at all. Just remove the a/c charge bracket and the T25 screw holding the charge pipe to the radiator bracket, then it simply bends a bit to get to all the motor mount bolts.

 

Some additional info - I was wrong about the $1100 quote. I asked my wife tonight if she was SURE about it and she said she was sure. But it wasn't $1100 - it was $1200!!

She said they already charged her $170 for the diagnosis, 2 gallons of coolant and oil change kit I had her get while she was there. I said WTF?!

So looking at the invoice here, she was charged $68 to diagnose the bad pump via a pressure test, $24/gal for two gal coolant and $54 for the 5 quarts of oil and filter.

They quoted her $56 to rotate the tires and $550 for front rotors and pads, which we already knew she'll need soon. So they wanted a total of $1806 for the water pump, tire rotation and front brakes! LOL

They are insane. I'll be doing the oil change and tire rotation as soon as I get done with the pump, and will be taking it to Tire Kingdom for the brakes for $360. We already had them do all four on mine and her rears.

 

OK back from Thanksgiving vacation...picked up an OEM pump from the dealer for $200 last night, not a great price but not bad either. $30 more than online. Got it on, pulley on, motor mount on...woot!

 

And done I wanted to do a how-to vid but working alone it just wasn't in the cards.

 

Thanks to all for the DIY water pump guide. Questions remain! I double posted, so see below.


Thanks again!

 

Thanks to all for the DIY water pump guide. I just experienced a serious leak, after looking on the garage floor, after a drive. I believe it has leaked a little for several months now. I was wondering why the heat wasn't blowing out hot air. Typical part to go, four months out of warranty.

I decided to stick to an OEM Pump, a new Continental belt and 1 gallon of BMW blue coolant.

Before sorting out the repair, I had a few questions.

1. All the bolts under my bonnet appear rust free, so they should come out fairly easily. Fingers crossed! I just have a lot of sockets and ratchets and a torx set. Are the front frame bolts under a lot of torque? Should I use WD40 on the bolts first? I'm talking about the bolts holding the front black frame/brace.

2. The battery ground is connected to the motor-mount, should I attach that to another bolt, while doing the repair?

3. Logic tells me to put the jack under the motor, before taking the motor-mount off. How long of a 2x4 should I use? A foot? Would a wider, thinner wood board work better to support the motors weight more evenly? Considering, I'll be jacking the oil pan, according to the other posts. Is it safe for the exhaust and other bits, to be attached to a motor which will be jacked?

4. How high should the motor be jacked to see the water pump and do the repair easily? 5 inches? 12"? I wouldn't want to jack it to high and damage something. Ah, should the motor be jacked straight up, or on an angle? I don't think an angle would be achievable, just want to make sure.

5. How tight should I turn the water pump bolts, when installing the new one?

6. Is the belt fairly easy to see and get off, when you have the motor jacked? That tensioner bit near the alternator, what do I do with it? Pull it? It looks spring loaded.

7. Do I have to detach both radiator lower hoses to drain the coolant?

8. Massaging the lead pipe sounds like less work than opening the thermostat. After poring in the new coolant, how long should it take to get the air out? Would a few pumps of the throttle speed the process along, in between massaging?

I'm going to do it with plenty of time to spare, so it can get done right! In times like this, I wish I had an old BMW 2002. There was so much space around that motor. I could see every single part and hose. It was super easy to change a water pump, alternator, radiator and just about everything else I repaired, while owning them.

Your response will be REALLY appreciated. Thank you in advance!

 

THANKS Boosted_Mini and nikkicooper for the very thorough instructions. I just replaced my water pump and would not have known where to start without them. Took me a little longer, but got it done in one evening. I couldn't find the vent screw on the thermostat housing and had to use the massage method when filling the radiator. Thanks again.

 

The parts have arrived and I'm going to tackle this later this week when I have time off. Do any of you have the torque specs for the engine mount bolts by chance?

 

Snug is how I do it. Haven't had problems yet

 

Thanks for posting this DIY! Finally got around to doing this today. Also replaced the serpentine belt while I was at it. The hardest part of the process for me was getting the damn boost hose off of the I.c. It was stubborn! Other than that, all went well.

My replacement pump was the Graf branded one from pelican parts and as someone mentioned above, there is an issue with the stem sticking out substantially further than that of the stock pump....this makes it near impossible to pass the pulley between the frame of the car and the pump when reinstalling it. My solution was to cut off the extra amount with a cutoff wheel before installing....this worked fine. Shouldn't have to mod brand new parts though....I sure as hell wasn't going with the plastic stock pump again!

Bleeding was a bit tricky but it finally worked. When releasing the bleeder screw, you need to turn it about 3revolutions before it will vent. I was afraid that I would back it out too far and drop it at first. Also starting the car and warming up after the initial fill and then venting the bleed screw after shut down a few times did the job.

Again thanks for the DIY. Saved me a ton of $. All materials ran me under $100. Can't beat that.

 

Ah....crap. A couple hundred miles and this new pump is starting to make noise. Guess I will be contacting pelican for a replacement. It's not to the point of screaming or squeaking yet, but its making noise. What a waste of time. At least I will know what I'm doing when I tear into it again and do it faster. Guess I will try a different brand. Grrr!

 

Ok so I replaced the pump which went well. Had a helluva time getting the pulley on and didn't pull the tab as mentioned below because I didn't see what I was supposed to pull. So I wedged the pulley on and put it all back together and started it up. All was going well and then it started making a lot of racket. Shut it down and went to look and saw that my water pump pulley was being chewed up so that I have to replace it now. I took everything apart again and now have found the tab to release the pressure. Of course after I pull the tab it seems to go back to the same pressure but Im not sure. Now to my questions and once again I hope NAM comes thru for me...

I'm assuming that my not pulling the tab and forcing the pulley on caused too much pressure on the pulley wheel and so it ate it?

Is the wheel inside the "releasable" black box supposed to rotate freely because it takes some work to rotate it?

Why would the pressure on the wheel not be reduced by the black box so that it didn't eat it?

Any other suggestions or ideas?

 

The friction wheel should spin freely (when off the car or "released" by pulling the tab). If it's on the car and not released, it will not spin because it is against the two pulleys...hence the "friction" in its name. Did you remove the friction wheel and try to spin it? If you take it off and find it doesn't spin, i'd suspect maybe a piece of rubber from the face of the water pump pulley may have been ingested by it if it was chewing up the wheel like you mention...if that's the case, you can probably get the debris out of it by removing it getting it out. It could also be that the bearing inside of it is bad, which would require replacement of the assembly altogether.

Can you tell what happened to make the pulley get fouled up? Did a tool fall in between them or something maybe? Hope you get it worked out. I just replaced my thermostat housing this morning. Two cooling system repairs in a month! geesh!

 

Ok by tensioner you dont mean the one all the way to the front of the car that you have to lift up and push in the pin to hold it up and release pressure on the belt...I am talking about the black box bolted to the engine that has a wheel in it as well and it is between the water pump and belt tensioner. Just wanted to clarify.

 

Yes, I am talking about the friction wheel, not the tensioner at the front. They should both spin freely, though, when either the tension is released or the belt removed. They are both just free spinning pulleys.

 

Yep it had parts of pulley rubber in it but they came from the pulley. Still cant believe that not pulling the tab is what created the carnage because it sure seems like it went right back to the same tension but who knows. Gotta replace the pater pump pulley and see how it goes.

 

Whatever you do...PULL THE TAB!!!

 

I just did this job on my 2009 R56 JCW and would like to add a couple of things that I think might be helpful, as well as thank the others who posted lots of information so that I felt I could take on the task.

Firstly, not unlike mickdayank's experience, when I jacked the engine up after removing the right side engine mount, and after unbolting the pulley, there wasn’t enough clearance to get the pulley out. I needed about another 1/8th inch! The solution was to loosen the engine mount on the other side and shift the engine over that 1/8th.

Second, the tip regarding the little ****, or tab, with the “S” on it was very important, but a little confusing. I wasn’t able to find the “S” and so was not sure about what to pull. I did fine it though and used a pair of needle nosed pliers to pull it, since it is difficult to get with fingers. Trying to upload a picture of it extended as far as needed to release the pulley lock.

Thanks a million guys!!

 

Im doing this bright and early tommorow. I bought the graf pump as well i will add anything if i catch it.