Radiator bottom hose broken
 

I was was coming back from a 20mns drive this evening when the message 'check coolant level' appeared. I step out of the car and could hear a big pchiiiii! I opened the hood and saw that a hose at the bottom of the radiator was gone. I can see a hole at the bottom of the radiator where I guess the hoose was attached to. I do not know yet if the hoose attachment part of the radiator is broken or if it is just the hoose which is gone. Recently I had another cooling system problem when the top hoose between the expension tank and the radiator broke. Is the cooling system a weakness of the X5?

another question, do you think I can drive the 2.5 miles to the garage tomorrow morning with no coolant without damaging the engine?

No, you can't drive it 2.5 miles to the shop. Too much risk.

I don't have a sense that the X5 has a weak cooling system. However, if I had failed a top hose recently, and then a lower hose soon after, I would look into whether there was a connection with the two events. For example, was the radiator removed at some point, and were the hoses reinstalled properly? Or, when the top hose was repaired, was the lower hose disturbed/moved/disconnected?

Get it towed, and tell the shop that the upper hose was worked on recently. Ask them if they see any reason to link the two events (assuming that they are not the shop that fixed the top hose, or if they are, that you have a good relationship with them).

Good luck.

Ok thanks will get it towed then.

I got it towed to the garage this morning and told them to look at a possible cause of the problem rather than just replacing the hose. I found indeed strange that I broke 2 different collant hoses in 2 different places within a week. May be there is too much pressure in the cooling system. How about if the thermostat was not doing its job opening the circuit when the right temp is reached for example? if that makes any sense. However the temp indicator has never shown any over heating.

Well... the garage told me that I have a blown head gasket and that they will replace it under the garranty. I got a loaner while waiting for my car to be fixed which they said could take up to a couple of weeks. Anyway I am wondering how I can have blown a head gasket when there was no sign of over heating. It is true that we got pretty extreme temperature recently here up to 104f but the temp indicator has never shown any problem. I am really wondering what underlying problem could have cause this. I am also wondering if that could not have created other problems. Is there anything I should double check when I get the car back?

Glad they found the root cause, and I hope that it fixes it all up.

Yes, a head gasket can fail without apparent signs of overheating. White smoke is the usual indicator, as coolant gets into the cylinders. Usually the situation worsens to the point that there is overheating. Additionally, on the X5 the temperature gauge is not an accurate gauge, it is 'buffered' so that it quickly climbs to mid-range, and stays there. Any temperature within a certain range of normal operating temperature will cause the gauge to read dead centre. Fairly useless as a diagnostic aid, as you found out.

How new is the vehicle? It is fortunate that it is covered under warranty, as it isn't likely to be an inexpensive repair. If the vehicle is fairly new, it sounds like a manufacturing defect. If it is an older vehicle, but new to you, then it is worth keeping an eye on coolant level and indicated coolant temperature for a while when you get it back.

Thanks JCL. I have a 4.4 2000 model which has 65k miles on the odometer. I bought it 5 months ago. It looks brand new and also drove like brand new before this gasket problem appeared. As I said i had no warning like overheating, lost of performance, etc... I never drove it hard and looking at the state of it when I bought it the previous owner must have been taking good care of it too. CARFAX indicates that it periodically went to scheduled maintenance. I had some few glitches since I got it like windows regulator and A/C final transistor replaced. I am so happy I took the 3 years garranty. It has already paid for itself. I will certainely keep an eye on the coolant level and temp when I get it back. Thanks again

Mine has blown twice now, same spot. The bottom radiator hose is a problem with X5's, well atleast it is on mine.

Hum...what model and year is your X5? How many miles did you have when this happened the 2 times? too much pressure in the bottom radiator hose could be linked to a defective thermostat not opening when it should. I am going to make sure that when they fix my head gasket they double check that the thermostat and the water pump work fine.