Question for the 3.0 crowd.
 

The temp gauge on my 2001 3.0 only gets to the quarter mark on days when the temps are in the teens or lower. This results in lukewarm air from the defroster, which is a bear on days when it's snowing or there is freezing drizzle as the windshield never gets warm enough to keep up with the ice. My E38 and before that my E39 both would heat the windshield until it steamed and it felt like I was being slow roasted in the driver's seat.

Is it normal for the E53 3.0 to run cooler? Or do I have a t-stat that's going bad?

Definitely sounds like a bad T-stat. BMW's get warm pretty quick (as you mentioned based on previous experience) and the only time I've had it take more than 10 min or so while driving was around -40 F.

Exaclty..

Thanks. Off to the dealer on Friday. It'll give me a chance to check out the new eye candy. :wow:

How much would something like that cost to fix? Im pretty sure I have the same issue.

T-stat. An independent can do it WAAAY cheaper then the stealership. I just had it done.

you can do it for around $65.00 and 40min. of your times.

Mine is CPO'd, so it's $50 and an hour or so of drooling over some really nice vehicles I'll never be able to own. Like this 2008 CL 65 AMG. Twin turbo V-12 going for a cool $200k. :thumbup:
http://www.bimmermail.com/MB.jpg