Quote:
Originally Posted by nc318tigurl  Well, the coolant is pretty low, so if I grabbed some BMW coolant, would I be alright to mix it with whats in there already/add to it? The previous owner had a gallon of proline coolant in the trunk
Is this good to use or get rid of it? I can only assume that he placed this type of coolant in the expansion tank. |
I edited my previous post while you were typing.
I don't think you're supposed to use that type of coolant in these engines. I could be wrong, but I think BMW coolant doesn't have glycol or something to that effect. Hopefully someone else will chime in. That being said, I wouldn't recommend mixing coolants. My best advice is to flush all of the old stuff out of your engine and heater core, then start fresh with BMW coolant. If you plan on doing all of your own maintenance, you may want to consider purchasing a Bentley manual. They cost about 30-40 bucks or at the very least you might want to pick up a Haynes manual from your local auto parts store. Neither of them are 318ti specific, so you'll need to get one for the BMW e36 1992-1999. You can also find good info in the knowledge base section of this forum as well as the tech article section on pelicanparts.com. If you don't want to buy the Bentley manual, there's a PDF copy floating around somewhere on the forum, but I always like to have the book so I can refer to it while I'm under the hood instead of getting my keyboard greasy.
Some really good resource is
www.realoem.com. Here you could find any part number or illustration you'll ever need for your car. Just type in the last 7 digits of your VIN and all of the information regarding your particular year and model will become available. I highly recommend creating a shortcut to your desktop after you enter your VIN. This will come in handly as a quick reference for part numbers and illustrations later down the road. For parts, I usually recommend
www.getbmwparts.com, pelicanparts.com and ecstuning.com. These places sell genuine BMW parts for a fraction of the price you'd pay at the dealer. All of them have excellent service. Personally I compare the prices between the three and go with the cheapest, however sometimes shipping spoils the deal when you're just purchasing one or two small items. So what I like to do is keep a "wish list" file on my computer and wait until I get enouogh stuff to make shipping worth while, then I'll compare prices and place the order.
Hope that helps.