Does 11537502000PRM URO aluminum coolant pipe fit x5 2006 3.0?

[mendes9]

06 3.0 X5 147K miles, and I'm concerned about the 2 coolant pipes under the intake manifold known to fail. I want to replace them, and I see URO has an aluminum version instead of OEM plastic, but on ecstunning some were complaining brackets don't fit but they were not e53 models. Anyone here know if it fits on an e53 x5?

[andrewwynn]

I'm not sure aluminum is an upgrade.

On the M62 which I've worked on the aluminum tubes were horribly corroded from the outside environment (think salt from roads) to the point I had to refurbish them before I could even hope for them to seal. I have not seen thread after thread of failure of the plastic pipe and repair threads like you can find literally 100s if not 1000s for the valley pipes on the V8 motors which use aluminum. They fail because they corrode from the outside under the seal.

Our M54 motors (pair of X5) are at 180,000 miles no sign of leak from the coolant crossover.

Plastic gets brittle and will catastrophically fail but it will never never ever ever corrode.

If I had my instake off I would replace my 20 yr old plastic pipe but I would use the OEM. (don't mess with what is working I think).

If the aluminum tube has some form of anticorrosion coating (shrink wrapped in plastic for example) then it might be a nice upgrade.

[mendes9]

Thanks, appreciate the advice.

[wpoll]

On some cars the alloy replacement is a massive improvement - the VW Golf Mk. IV (and early new Beetle) for instance. I went through two plastic coolant flanges distrorting and leaking before swapping to an alloy version - never been in there since (~5 years now).





But in the case of the BMW M54 - heed the advice of the experts!

And FWIW, I've not heard of anyone having trouble with these items on the BMW M54... a few on the M57 but not the M54...

[andrewwynn]

Big difference between a straight pipe and that crazy complex joint. I would definitely use metal when an option for elbows, joints and five way intersections

[oldskewel]

The two heater pipes are not something I would definitely pre-emptively replace on an M54 at your low mileage.

When I had my engine apart on my 2001 3.0i at about 186k miles, those pipes were doing fine, but I replaced them anyway.

As commonly happens, the ends where they meet the cylinder head crumbled away upon removal. Maybe not "corrosion" by definition, but it was definitely a complete weakening of the material, perhaps due to heat cycling and some reaction with the coolant. The rest of the pipes were fine, but the last inch or two near the head interface were crumbly.

I replaced with plastic. Got burned once by URO, and it will never happen again. On parts like that, I'd be most concerned with quality o-rings, rather than aluminum vs. plastic or BMW vs. aftermarket.

So if you have the intake manifold off for easy access anyway, and you really feel like replacing them, make sure you get good o-rings. But if you want to leave them there and hope they make it to 200k, from my experience and other readings on here, you'll probably be OK.