Cooling System Overhaul - heater hoses?
 

Do you guys ever change these out too? At what interval?

I have found most hoses on all BMW's are very well made. I would change them when the water pump gets changed...75-120k. Or about 10 years but that's me.

BMW Parts and BMW Accessories | Bavarian Autosport This is a link to a complete cooling kit bav auto sells...there links seem never to work and go to their home page.

Thanks Rockit, looked at their cooling system overhaul kits. They dont include the expansion tank to aux water pump hose, and the left/right core hoses.

Your interval sounds about right. We have a 2003 4.6is here with only about 28,000 miles on her blow a cooling system hose the other day. Got me thinking as though I just finished overhauling my own cooling system, I didnt change out the heater hoses.

heres a kit ecs sells BMW E53 X5 M54 3.0L Engine Cooling ES#2158099 ECS Cooling System Refresh Kit - Level 1 - ECSE531711-1

^hmm, these dont have the heater hoses as well...

Replace them. I had one of mine go at ~90k after I replaced the main hoses doing a water pump. Better safe and less annoyed. ��

are you talking about the hoses for the heater core?

Yes he is. I looked up most overhaul kits and they don't include the heater core hoses/pipe, only the radiator/tank hoses. If it was me and I only wanted to do the job once every 10 years, I'd spend the extra bucks to replace all heater core hoses too, just for peace of mind. Would hate to do the whole job and have a heater hose bust shortly after bc its the only original part in the cooling system left.

Look up the p/n's on Realoem and add them separate, that level 1 kit from ECS with the genuine parts is a good start.

One of the (many) wisemen here have spoken. Do it once, do it right. At ~120k on my clock, the only original pieces in my cooling system are the rad and heater core. Rad is on the list for spring, while the heater core is likely going to get done in the next year with the blower motor.

Since I don't consider anyone here a wise person, certainly including myself, about all questions asked here----

I would thoroughly check all hoses. If the rest of the hoses have no bulges, feel normal and the connector ends of the hoses are not spongey I would leave them alone.

It would be foolish to challenge replacing all the hoses or all other cooling components but I don't consider it the only right approach. As an example, while doing something else I broke the plastic tube part of the overflow. That was at about 70,000mi. Somewhere around 100,000mi. I replaced a heater hose that ruptured. At 110,000mi. I have yet to replace any other cooling system parts.

Periodically I check the hoses and coolant level to see if I have a leak somewhere but I certainly feel comfortable with the approach I use.

If the failure of one cooling system component was foreshadowing that other parts will quickly follow, I would take the approach do a complete overhaul. However, Cooling system components have a wide variation of life cycles so that is not the case.

I have always taken extremely good care of my vehicles and never found there is only one right way to do things especially when I put my wallet in the equation.