Interesting. I would have said that the mounting plate doesn’t have coolant in it because my N62 doesn’t. It’s also a stupid design for yet another failure point. But on looking at the part, it certainly does look like it has coolant flowing through.
Note: our radiators are aluminum with plastic end caps, like most cars these days. The failure point is on the seam where the plastic connects to the metal. Mine has had a pinhole leak for the last couple of years and I’ve been putting liquid epoxy on the seam as a temp fix. Seems to work ok. I’ll change the radiator in the summer.
My N62 setup:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=17_0291