Reddit mentions: The best cooling & water pump tools

Save yourself $20-30 and get a set off Amazon. These have survived two fan removals for me, and make decent pry bars as well. You may want to wrap the handles, the machining left them slightly sharp. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J5N6EVQ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

It probably would be easier but I dont think its worth the hassle honestly. Jack the car up and come at some things from the bottom.

I do recommend getting this tool

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017VLLQ6M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Makes removing the fan way easier and is very much worth the $18.

The other thing to pay attention to is how to get the belt back on. Its going to be tight and if you go about it the wrong way it will be off a tooth. Once you figure out the trick its super easy though.

They way I did it was to loosen the tensioner bolts as far as they would go but still hold it on. Wrap the belt around the cam, crank and oil pump first with all the slack on the underside. Use a long screw driver to push the tensioner in and use the slack on the tensioner assembly to wiggle the belt onto it. Let the tensioner out and secure it. Check your marks and then do 2 full rotations of the crank. Verify marks again and adjust as needed.

Ahh, heating issues, sometimes very easy, sometimes the most difficult thing to do on a car.
There are many things that can cause your heater to not work.

Firstly, most heater issues are caused by low coolant or trapped air in the system so fill it to the rim and burp it. If its low, its going somewhere, so find it.

Next, its often the heater valve, the mixers, wiring or vac lines. (I doubt your car has vacuum controlled conditioning system though)

But, if you have narrowed it down to the core its self, first thing to do is to try to blow it out by bringing your engine to redline a few times on the highway. (First thing to do for most issues on a car, "A redline a day keeps the mechanic away") If that doesn't change anything, then its time for a flush. Set the car heat to high, unhook the core inlet and outlet hoses on the engine, then flush and backflush it a few times with a garden hose. If you have low flow, you can pour CLR in the hoses and let it sit for a few hours then flush it again.

If it hasn't had one recently, now is definitely a good time for a full coolant flush too.

Helpful tools I would recommend for the job:

Airlift ~$80 (Very helpful for burping a system)

Coolant System Pressure Tester ~$150 (Helpful for finding leaks and testing the cap)

Refractometer ~$50 (A very helpful tool, especially if you live in a cold climate. It measures the freezing point of ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and measures battery acid state)

As far as recycling the coolant, in some counties you can pour it down the drain when properly diluted, but most of the time you have to bring it in to a recycling center.

Good luck! If you have any further questions, ill be around.

using something like this to refill is kind of important if you want to address an airpocket in your heater core. If you just pour it into the radiator you’ll probably still have air in the heater core. There are other ways to bleed the air out like Reving the engine on an incline or some vehicle has bleeder screws. But, the vacuum filler is by far the easiest

I ordered everything off amazon and did my thermostat, water pump, expansion tank, also on the automatic cars (like mine) there is another thermostat on the bottom of the expansion tank when you remove it, which most likely broke when your tank exploded

I also snapped off the drain screw/plug on the bottom of the expansion tank when switching it over...so I filled er' up with coolant, only to realize the MF'er was busted ever so slightly, so coolant was flowing through the expansion tank like taco bell does to me. So I replace that too for under $5.

This is a fairly easy job to DIY, the only thing you need to worry about is the 32MM wrench to take off the fan on the automatics, other than that, most of the tools are just the 14MM or 16MM sockets and some torx screws. If you are working on your E46 you should have a torx set, and a metric socket set. I did not do all the hoses though when I did mine as they felt and appear to be in decent condition.

[thermostat] (https://www.amazon.com/Stant-14602-Thermostat-Housing-Fahrenheit/dp/B000C822YM/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1487609776&vehicle=2003-31-176-20--1-6-6-7308-171-1-1---1-0&sr=1-1&ymm=2003%3Abmw%3A325xi)

[expansion tank thermostat that sits on bottom of expansion tank] (https://www.amazon.com/B7583-17111437362-Cooler-Thermostat-Housing/dp/B00BOIVI76/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00BOIVI76&pd_rd_r=WV5225HSC9FA4W0BJ1FB&pd_rd_w=uAVgO&pd_rd_wg=nUSHN&psc=1&refRID=WV5225HSC9FA4W0BJ1FB)

[expansion tank] (https://www.amazon.com/Radiator-Coolant-Reservoir-Expansion-Quality/dp/B008564ZQG/ref=pd_bxgy_263_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=9S8V0595SD0VV6X1BPVX)

[water pump with metal impeller] (https://www.amazon.com/URO-Parts-11-527-799/dp/B0066TLWGU/ref=pd_sim_263_21?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=S1N6T6G260SVYS2YNMY1)

[32mm wrench for fan] (https://www.amazon.com/Clutch-Wrench-Water-Holder-Removal/dp/B017VLLQ6M/ref=pd_bxgy_263_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=513EA9TG3QARCWSMJ554)

So for ~$150-$160 you can re-do the cooling system, if you want to do hoses as well, you are looking at another $50-$75

If you plan on keeping the car for a while, I recommend getting this tool. It'll make next time so much easier.

Did you by any chance pull on the emergency brake before starting? It makes the calipers harder to compress. Next time buy yourself one of these. Takes less than 5 minutes to compress the piston with the proper tool.