so long story short, i rebuilt a mint 07 cooper s and ive ran into some issues with the P0117 engine coolant temperature low circuit code. i have done the obvious, replaced the coolant temp sensor and no luck. went ahead and changed the entire thermostat housing in hopes of curing the issue and no dice. there was an aftermarket water temp gauge that never worked since i bought the car, but after removing it there are no signs of them splicing any stock wiring. anyone have any suggestions? im starting to lean towards a bad ground, or possible a broken wire within the harness. has anyone else ever experienced this issue? going to dig into it tonight so we'll see where it leads. just curious if anyone else has seen this issue or could point me in the right direction to start. ive done some searching within the forums and google but its heavily flooded with the common code fault issues.

 

i would like to point out the fact that i recently replaced the entire thermostat housing, but im seeing some threads on how to properly bleed the system.. i have driven the car probably 200 miles with this current issue, i cant imagine there being air still trapped in the system, however i guess anything is possible when the factory part places a bleeder screw on top of the thermostat housing.

 

Before you go crazy with this issue, find a live data obd reader and see if it is actually reading anything.

There is always a chance when they installed the gauge, the wires shorted and hence shorted the circuit inside the DME/ECU.

At any rate, get the live data first.

where are you located?

 

located in grand rapids, MI. i do have a master tech friend who has a new snapon computer that we'll get some readings from as well. so this car had a set of dual gauges from pro sport (absolute junk in my opinion) but the water temp gauge i have only seen work maybe once or twice ever.. as of late it simply doesnt work. it has an in line adapter in the radiator hose for its own sensor straight to the gauge, so the only thing they tied into was the ignition for power up. a friend just emailed me and said to pull the coolant temp gauge and get some power to ground, or ground to power readings. it does seem to run as if the car thinks its dead cold. little bit of a rough idle, rich symptoms etc etc. is the water pump thermostat electronically controlled to open as well? so that would mean if the coolant temp sensor has a ground short its never sending the signal for the thermostat to open when it reaches operating temp.

 

yeah, take that stuff off for now and get a live reading. in the meantime, check the pipes and coolant level. realoem.com is a good start.

 

agreed, just need to get this sorted. you can also tell it takes forever for the heat to start blowing within the car, at least 15 minutes or so before you feel any warm air inside.

 

aha...that shouldn't be related to the thermostat per se'. check the water pump if it's spinning and making a good contact with the other wheel.

my newly purchased Clubman wasnt blowing warm air at all and after few minutes I was like, "ha, something's wrong." i looked over while the car was running the water pump wasnt spinning. turned out the "pull wire" was not released back.

 

thats great info there as well, thank you sir i appreciate that.

 

glad to help..keep us posted

 

If you did not bleed at the thermostat housing you may not have water circulating. With the car running open the bleeder till water comes out.

 

well this is a little embarrassing....

when i bought this car blown up the guy i bought it from removed the stock inlet tube and air box assembly because it was aftermarket.. so i didnt get a real feel for how things went back together until i pieced everything back together with aftermarket stuff.. well to make a long story short, i had the engine coolant temp sensor and the charge pipe sensor wiring backwards.. honestly shame on BMW for making identical plugs within reach of one another.. how stupid is that, i have literally never seen that before. Even if they made the same plug i get it, but dont put enough reach on both plugs to get them mixed up, and because i never saw how the motor looked originally i didnt know any different. anyways, all fixed now and no CEL's for the time being.