Thanks Guys - Like I said try it at your own risk but it worked out great for me! A few weeks later and the seats still look great!
With nothing much more to do on the car I guess the car missed me and wanted to give me something to do.
She started showing symptoms of a failing water pump
I checked the history and the pump was last changed at BMW at 67k km so I guess it is time as the car is now on 154k km.
So I started shopping around for a replacement pump. Lock down and the exchange rate didn't help much and the prices increased. Ended up paying +-R5900 for a pump and some liqui moly coolant from Goldwagen.
Decided to DIY the job and it actually wasn't too bad. Things are tight but not impossible:
A N54 in its natural habitat:
View of the old pump. Trust me just remove as much as possible. It saves you time rather than struggling with no space to work.
Old pump nearly out:
"Take your car to BMW", they said. "They will do a good job", they said. NOT! BMW snapped a bolt off and decided to leave it there for me:
I decided to leave the broken bolt in there as it works like a nice dowl pin. Haha
Old pump vs new pump:
I didn't take any further pictures but the car is now happy and I can drive her again!
While we are here I thought I would share some pics of my old beast. I hope I can get this car up to my old cars level:
