Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone here could help me with a problem that happened
today with my 2.5L - 6 cylinder E36 on a K plate.

Basically the car has been as good as gold.. it's done 119,000...

So today I was on a 4 mile journey to the next town. As I drove into the
town I noticed that the temp gauge had crept up above the 1/2 way mark. Well
as I stopped in the car park I noticed a little waif of smoke from under the
left hand side of the bonnet, and then the red temperature light came on. So
I switched it off, I then opened the bonnet, waited for about 40 mins for
the engine to cool completely, I opened the cap on the side of the radiator
to check the water level and it was fine.

So I decided to drive back home, upon getting home it done the same thing
again, so I opened the bonnet whilst the engine was running, and could see
at the top of the engine block, nearest the front, you have two hoses going
into what I can only assume is the water pump. Well the steam seems to be
coming from the back underside of the pump. All the hoses seems ok and the
radiator is fine.

The odd thing about it was, whilst on idol the temperature drops, back down
to 3/4, but under load it goes straight back up.

Now am I right in thinking that the reason it does that is because some of
the blades have come off or the pump is failing ? hence when its under load
it can't keep up ? common problem I've heard ?

I don't think its the head gasket as there was no smoke at any time from
the exhaust, plus the car hasn't really used any water at all, maybe 100ml ?
and when the temperature was low it was fine.

Whats more of a pain is that I phoned the garage up, and they can't even
look at it next Monday !

Any help would be grateful !

Thanks