Quote:
Originally Posted by SlickGT1
Yup, Ricky knows the whole story. After extensive discussions with a lot of BMW "wrenchers", the 2 bar cap is a joke that BMW is playing on us. If your system starts to boil over, you do not need to see that at 2 bar. You will be quite ok when it boils at 1.4 bar, and might even notice it before you would on a 2 bar system. The other part of the joke, is that at 2 bar, shit is not going to leak, shit is going to explode its guts in a catastrophic manner. The parts brand new from BMW are barely made to run at 1.5 bar, when new. When I pressure tested my coolant system, my tester instructions said to not go over 1 bar. WTF, is BMW doing with a 2 bar relief cap, if not blowing out our expansion tanks and hoses so that we keep coming back for the parts. 1.4 bar for me from now on.
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Slick is correct and e30cabrio you are good to go with the 1.4 bar E30 cap from Meyle. 200 on the cap means 2.0 bar, all E53 came with.
Last time we chatted around here the consensus with most was "if its 2 bar stock leave it alone" but BMW has switched their models in past from 2.0 bar to 1.4 bar, the expansion tank cap is nothing more than a pressure relief valve, under normal operation the system never builds up more than 1.0/1.1 bar of pressure anyway. If you are building up enough pressure that the relief valve on the cap is triggered, your system is running hot or you have another problem in your cooling system, and by then your needle will be pegged to the right as well and the coolant light will be on.
I'd rather that happen to me at 20 psi as opposed to 29 psi in the system to avoid real eruption. Our cooling systems are touchy, no problems going with a 1.4 bar cap. German Auto Solutions makes a 1.2 bar cap for replacement, very nice anodized part, but at less than half the price the BMW 1.4 bar cap is perfectly adequate.