SilverDameon55

When changing the SC water pump, us it vitally important to bleed the system afterwards? I don't have a hose or something to do it and wanted to know if it was something that had to be done or will the bubbles escape themselves alone...May be leave the resovour lid open and let the car run a bit?

thanks

bbirdwell

Run your hand along the metal lines until you find the nipple with a rubber cap. Go a few inches further until you reach the rubber line and use a pair of pliers to gently clamp it shut.

Remove rubber nipple, install a piece of tubing over the nipple, run the other end into the coolant expansion reservoir.

Go to Figure 15 here:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...mp_Testing.htm

Install a jumper between the two connections indicated by the red and red/black arrow. Turn on key, watch pump run until virtually no bubbles remain.

Reassembly is the reverse of above.

Pelican Parts guy, any chance I could ask you to put a note at the end of Figure 15 writeup explaining that, "if one owns a W211 E55 AMG, this is not the fuel pump relay, it is the heat exchanger cooling pump relay"? I ask this as, when I was a newb Mercedes owner, it took me quite awhile to figure out where the E55 fuel pump relay was located.

Note: what is the non-AMG fuel pump in the Pelican Parts tech article is the heat exchanger coolant pump in the AMG version.

MACEDON

Go to walmart and get a hose. You gots to do it. It's fairly easy with the jumper cable like Barry said.

tw2

There is a link in my signature from when I last did this if it helps.

bbirdwell

tw2, yours is the post for which I was looking! My Google-Fu powers are weak today....

tw2

Don't worry, I have a lot of trouble finding it too except through the signature link. I must remember to bookmark these things.

SilverDameon55

What could happen if I didn't bleed the system? And could I do it once the car has been driven?

PieRat

I didn't bleed the system when i replaced mine. I just kept openning the coolant resovior regulrly for a week or so to let the excess air out that built up there. Seemed to work fine, I could tell by the water level dropping. I clamped my hoses near the pump to minimize water loss and air making its way in to the system during unstall If you don't bleed it the cooling effect might be a little worse, noting to worry about when driving it around til you can bleed it.

i reccomend you do bleed it.

tw2

Not bleeding will result in air in the upper intercooler which can result in poor IAT's if there is enough of it and noticeably affect performance. The upper intercooler circuit does not self bleed completely with the reservoir like the rest of the system.

Its fine to drive around normally for as long as you like but bleed it whenever you can. No point in replacing the heat exchanger or pump and leave air in it.

eFifty5AMG

I didn't bleed when I first swapped my IC pump & noticed an increase in temperatures versus my old 2005 010. Decided to go back and bleed it & quite a lot of air needed to be bled out. Temps were still a few degrees above so I bled it again but the second time for a few more minutes; a few more air bubbles until I saw nothing but coolant flow steadily. Now I'm back to the same intake temps as before typically 10-15° above ambient.

PelicanParts.com

Thanks for pointing this out - note made in the tech article.

SilverDameon55

Ok so I'm going to end up taking it in to bleed it out unless opening the tank lid when the car is a bit warm works....but I've been driving the car for a few days and the throttle jumps have gone down drastically but are still present at about 3400 rpms but my big concern now is that tonight on the way home my check engine light came on....
the car is driving fine but now I'm nervous I messed something up.

tw2

Check you haven't got low coolant as the system will take a bit to replace as it self bleeds a reasonable amount but the last bit has to be done properly. Have you looked at my instructions? It is an easy procedure. Opening the tank lid while hot will probably burn you and will not help the bleeding process.

SilverDameon55

First I want to thank everone for the advise and help on this issue. Tw2 I did use your instructions and got the job done....but I'm not sure if its right. I made the jumper cable:
And plugged it in the proper fuse. I heard the pump kick on but there wasn' enough pressure to really push the coolant up the hose. Does that mean my pump is bad? I made a short vid but I can't upload it for some reason.

tw2

Do you mean the hose you added to the loop for bleeding? Did you hold off the larger black hose just below it? You will get minimal flow unless you squeeze this.
Your cable looks good and if the pump kicked on, then the cable is definitely doing its job.

SilverDameon55

I did hold the hose at just under the nipple where I connected the clear hose to run to the reservoir. Until I held that though, the flow was minimal to none. I head the hum of the pump running but again the flow wasn't even enough to push the coolant through the pipe. I was concerned that may be my pump was bad or something. I did make a vid to show what I mean but I'm not sure how to upload it here...

tw2

There will be very little to no coolant flow without pinching that lower black hose with the pump running, that is normal. By pinching the hose you are forcing it to run through the small bleed hose you attached to the metal nipple. Otherwise it runs through its minimal resistance normal large diameter coolant loop.

I assume you got decent flow when you did hold it off?

SilverDameon55

Yes I did get a good flow when I pinched the hose under it. I happen to find a vid as well on YouTube of someone doing this exact job on his e55 but he had much more flow and lots of bubbles. I for one didn't have any bubbles except 1 big one that was in the tube and the pressure didn't even push it out.