Did I kill my radiator by burping it?

[rhombus]

So I got my new '97 318ti in Las Vegas and drove it to Lincoln, NE without getting pulled over and without any MAJOR mechanical incident. I did find out that the heat doesn't work in the car. I found that out about midnight, while driving through the Rockies and just before I found out that the clock I had been messing with, was in fact more than a clock, and did in fact tell the temperature and beeped when it approached freezing outside.

Anyway, I get back to Lincoln, check out the forums here and learn that there may be a number of things that cause the heat not to work. Thermostat stuck open, wire from in-cabin knob to valve misaligned, or air in the cooling system. Ahh, something I can attempt to fix, despite my lack of mechanical experience. A few people got their heat back by burping their radiator and the process looks very simple.

I decided to give it a go, just 30 minutes ago. I loosened the vent screw and started up the car. I bit of fluid had jumped out. Someone here posted that they had to rev the engine to burp their radiator properly, so I revved it a bit, only going up to 3k RPMs. After this, I notice that there is a lot of coolant leaking onto the garage floor and it is doing so fairly steadily, despite any coolant gushing out from underneath the loosened screw.

I turn off the car, the dripping slows and stops. I tighten the screw, start the car and the dripping comes back. It appears to be coming from a radiator hose right next to the radiator drain plug. The hose looks a little bulgy, but doesn't feel soft, rotted or cracked.

What do you guys think happened here?

[German Luger]

I would just replace both hoses and flush radiator and put fresh freeze in it and bleed it again

[German Luger]

Here is a very good place to get parts that you cant get local www.bimmerparts.com

[German Luger]

Then again could be radiator just take time and troubleshoot

[pdxmotorhead]

Its REALLY common for the neck to brake off on older E36 radiators.

Check carefully....

Dave

[rhombus]

Originally Posted by pdxmotorhead

Its REALLY common for the neck to brake off on older E36 radiators.

Check carefully....

Dave

The neck?

Can you point it out at RealOEM?

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...89&hg=17&fg=05

[German Luger]

The expansion tank. When this happen to me I just bought a new radiator with tank attcahed from www.bimmerparts.com I did radiator. thermostat, hoses, waterpump oem waterpump will fail sooner or later because of plastic impeller= overheat at the wrong time and place I was getting ice cream with my wife that day