Broken hose
 

I recently posted a thread about a coolant leak from a small upper hose. Well, yesterday 2 plastic pipes broke on me Coolant all over the engine of course. Fortunately I was about 500yards to my home when that happened. It was too late in the evening to go to BMW and get the parts. Also my extended warranty for some reason does not cover hoses. I looked on line and BMW only sales the entire set of hoses and pipes. When I inspected the damage I found that all hoses were in good condition but the 2 plastic t-shape pipes obviously broke due to fatigue. Honestly I would have expected much better quality material on a BMW. These plastic pipes looks very cheap.
Today I was able to fix the problem by replacing the 2 plastic broken pipes by 2 metal ones. I found one at Pep Boys and the other one at home Depot. I had to work on the big one a little bit with an electric filer so as to be able to fit a small hose on it. After fixing it I drove the car all afternoon and everything is fine. If something else breaks in the cooling system this will certainly not be these 2 metal parts. Bottom price: 25$ for the fix and 2 1/2hours of work.
Here are the pics:
Pic 1) Cooling circuit diagram showing the 2 failing parts.
Pic 2) Small broken pipe and the one got at Pep Boys.
Pic 3) Big broken pipe and the one got at home Depot.
Pic 4) Everything back together

Good fix, & Pics, Alain!

One might think that a "premo" car mfg like BMW
would choose parts to withstand the cooling sys
heat, and last longer than a few years.

It seems that a non-stress, non-functional part
could be cheapened by pennies per thou quantity,
but that they might spend a couple more pennies
per thou, on the parts that are taking the brunt
of engine heat.

Planned obsolescence, ala the Detroit mfg's, circa
'50s on...in these regularly ocurring cases I read
here and about all the "premium brands", it comes
on in parts that are pretty vital, to "get home".
I must be missing something, here, lol!

The thing is that 18month ago I had a problem with the cooling system. I got the radiator and water pump changed under the warranty as well as some of the hoses but obviously not all of them unlike I thought. Although all the hoses look good these plastic pipes cannot be 18month old only.

Alain, I agree with you from looking at your pics: those
fittings look a lot older than 18 months; I'd guess orig.

I too, had a water pump and a few related cooling sys.
things R&R'd just before my oem warr. ran out. But,
that was 12k and 18 months ago. At 56K, I'm wondering
what part of my cooling sys. is on borrowed time.

The "quality" of the plastic parts they are using is really
suspect. And, penny-wise and pound foolish, imo.
All part of the "lease me for 3 years" deal and then
it's CPO'd to the next owner and that "CPO" is not
going to cover most of the cooling system parts when
they let go.
My 2Cts.
BR,mD

Detailing the engine bay today and I broke #8 on your diagram up top. Where did you get that diagram? I need to find out what part # 8 is. Thanks.

Guess that's what I get for cleaning the engine bay!

Detailed diagrams and parts list are found at:

RealOEM.com: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do

I've know about that site for years and looked there before posting, but it doesn't show the expansion tank pipe, or at least I am looking in the wrong spot for it.

Here's as far as I get

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partgrp.d...46&hg=17&fg=05

Follow the path: Engine/Engine Cooling, scroll to bottom:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partgrp.d...46&hg=11&fg=35

Swwwaaeeet!!!

Thanks!:thumbup: