not to be wishy washy, i just have to stay in that fine line mode. warm fuzzies would be a luxury for me these days. i loved the 2013 loaner i had when at the dealer last. now that was warm and fuzzzzzy. and i agree the consequences could be worse if i am not careful. this is why i am here, to listen and hopefully avoid an even more costly outcome. all input is valued truly. looking at the realoemparts.com diagram, i don't see this triangular piece under radiator. yikes.

I'm still trying to figure out what this triangular piece is. Can you post a photo of it?

Hopefully you're in Seattle Washington and not Washington DC since the temp is suppose to get below freezing in DC and the last time I looked distilled water still freezes at 32F or 0C for our neighbor to the north. If you do live in DC better get some anti-freeze in the system or you will be looking at more repairs.

If it wasn't so cold 25F (who know what temp C that is) I would take the front shield off my X and see if I can find that plastic piece.

Look like someone did a MacGyver fix on it with the silicone. Could be that someone didn't want to remove the fan housing to replace a part and just used a hole saw to cut a hole in the fan housing. I know of DIYers who butchered up their Lotuses because they didn't want to remove the engine to replace the timing belt.

I think it's a protection cap. Check the two locations that is suppose to have the protection cap and see if one is missing. See attach link to diagram of protection cap.

But since you found it on the engine shield it's not the problem you are having with the coolant leak.


RealOEM.com * BMW E53 X5 3.0i Belt Drive Water Pump/Alternator

i think there's a pic attached....same one from before; we'll see.

@upallnight (!!!) not freezing here yet!!! in the great northwest lol ... also not driving vehicle (except once less than a mile real easy like). pet peeve: macgyver'ing. maybe a hyundai if one is lazy, not a bmw. hope the car doesn't hear me.

i will postpone adding oem coolant til the end since i can't get more down the street. and i won't probably drive anywhere either until i know it is not likely to cause extreme grief. if i knew i would get a backup car that wouldn't cause additional work, i would go get one in the next 30min.

besides missing mass and black belt club, i can wait this out a bit. if any of you can put up with me, i am all ears. ever grateful

remove front cover...you mean just to the left above the expansion tank, right? what are those black circles that aren't bolts/nuts. omg i know bear with me

Black circles which are not bolts or nuts could be plastic rivets which BMW and everyone else like to use these day. The center of the rivet can be pried out and and the rivet remove afterward.

about that macgyver'ed black plastic circle......suppose the coolant level low was not related. does the "coolant level low" correspond to the increased temp at the time? do you know if a different type of liquid could have come from this yet unidentified component? what would be worse case scenario if i siliconed it back where it was. then if i somehow drained whatever was in the coolant reservoir plus the one quart i just added of distilled water, then added the 2 gallons (1:1 oem coolant to distilled water). then continued the research on the macgyver'ed piece, and drove the car maybe 6 miles a week until i resolved the mystery.

Does anyone know of any coolant/radiator/thermostat/waterpump DIY walk throughs for the E53?
I have searched and found none.

Found one for my E46 on a "fanatic" page back when I had to do the radiator and ET. ;)

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From your picture it appears that the pulley is for the AC compressor.

http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...126_081153.jpg

Some MacGyver type guy might have had a bad clutch for the compressor so instead of evacuating the system to remove the compressor he just drilled a hole to try to get to the compressor clutch. Does your AC work?

Is your cooling system leaking coolant? In addition to adding coolant to a leaky system, you will need to bleed the system if the system was low enough that you now have air trapped in the system. If you don't bleed the system correctly you will have problem on long trips were the engine get hot but the air bubble in the system will not allow the water to circulate as intended. Short trips under 10 miles should be find, just monitor the water temp gauge.

Coolants leaks are normally from old hoses, old expansion tank or old radiator. Given the year of the X the system is OLD.

BimmerM3,

There is no way to challenge your logic--if it ain't broke it will soon. I think that's the way it goes, maybe not.

The reason I posted it is not required is because some of us think that replacing all the hoses, the water pump, the radiator etc. is expensive. Any many of us don't have the time or talent to DIY, or alternative transportation or or. They need to know they have realistic options to consider. In addition, there are other readers of our posts and they also need to know--the rest of the story.

Sure, there are coolant problems that could cause damage to any engine--few and far between. Primarily they happen when the driver does something like driving to the next exit--it is only 3 miles or doesn't know what a temp gauge is for. I doubt very much that anyone here fits that profile.

If I had a hose fail and by examination another hose was suspect, I probably would replace all the hoses. However, I lost a hose last summer. The others looked/felt fine. I replaced the one hose. The other hoses are still fine.

I would never consider using the potential of catastrophic engine failure to justify a complete cooling system overhaul, unless I wanted to do a complete cooling system overhaul and my wife started asking questions like--- what was wrong with what you had?

Are you really saying that whenever something fails in your cooling system you replace everything?