Bulkhead partition from Ebay
 

Anyone has first hand experience with these bulkhead partitions from ebay?

3PCS New Engine Upper Compartment Partition Panel for BMW X5 X6 E70 E70N E71 KIT http://r.ebay.com/1uFhMw

Best price I can find for OE 3 piece is ~$165, so I am thinking maybe its worth taking a chance for $45. Apparently 180 of these sold already, so hopefully one of them is xoutpost member...

Report back in a few years....

I have them they fit fine and are made of good quality hard plastic in my opinion, all tho they come without the black sealing tape underneath. Irrelevant as both OEM and chinese parts are probably better to just silicone off.

Wish I would have known about these before buying OEM. OE partitions certainly didn't survive the heat this engine produces, so I would have taken my chances with this alternative.

BMW has been supplying revised partitions for quite a while, and those don't crack/fail.

Having said that, $45 is below the threshold of "can't take the risk", plus not that difficult to replace, so I would proceed with the eBay ones if I had to.

Are you speaking from experience or the "you get what you pay for" mantra as these are breaking chronically on our sub $100k SUV's?

Where are you getting your information? I'm not seeing anything stating a superseded by, meaning they haven't changed at all.

top right - RealOEM.com - Part Search
top left - RealOEM.com - Part Search
top center - RealOEM.com - Part Search

I'm getting this information from my own eyes, as the differences b/w old and revised parts are quite apparent, esp. for the middle one.

Original material was a fiber composite of sorts, new style is plastic?

I’m not familiar with this issue. Where exactly are the parts in question?

You are confused. OE= BMW

The parts on the car were OE. The replacement parts from BMW are also OE

There are NO "oem" parts- meaning there is no original equipment manufacturer that made the OE parts and is now releasing an OEM version.

Common misuse of OE/OEM....



The OE versions built when the car was new might not be the same plastic as BMW sells now- perhaps stabilizers or composition has changed, they may have corrected the defect as part of normal manufacturing.

They work just fine. Buy some weather stripping from your local hardware store and you'll be gtg.

WTF with the yuppie outfit and blue gloves?!?!?

Please...

^Hah. Noticed that as well the first time I saw that. To each their own I guess...

As for the parts... I went with OE parts ordered from FCP. Couldn't bring myself to try out the China parts... If anyone does/has, a long term update would definitely help to allay the concerns others have.

Thanks everyone for input. I have purchased ebay partitions. Once they arrive I will post some pics and my initial review (hopefully before Xmas).

Then down the line, I will also update some longer term quality/fitment updates...

LOL Would you guys rather I wear a mechanics jump suit when creating DIY videos? I wore what I wore for a reason, and that was to portray the ease of the task. Can always count on ARD finding something to be critical about :stickpoke

BTW stay tuned for more DIYs coming soon!

Didn't know that was you!!

;)

I've got a thing about rubber gloves anyway, especially for 'dry' work. The clothes just pushed me over the edge.

I purchased a set of Chinese ones as well. The fitment is definitely not the same. I ended up using a caulk gun with gasket maker to create a watertight seal (where the center piece connects to the 2 ends). So far its been working well. If i can find any pictures, ill post.

Took 2 weeks to receive mine from ebay.

Overall I am happy with quality and installation was easy. I didn't have to do any major mods. Mine already had weatherstrip on left and right piece.

I was able to reuse foam pads on left and right pieces (see attached pic with highlight). Also added small piece of foam weatherstrip on center piece, where it attaches to left and right side. Sticker for "SYNTHETIC OIL" was reused from OE partition :rofl:

OE are slightly heavier and stiff. Now lets wait and see how long will they last. I will provide updates.

Just received mine. Any updates on how these are holding up?

Still no visible cracks. Panels are holding together.

North Carolina climate...Hot Summers, Some Winter (freezing days). X5 has now 168K miles (Panels are put in at 144K).

Thanks for the quick reply. So far so good. Install wasn't too bad after drilling and replacing foam and weatherstripping.

That looks good. I am going to have to check mine. :thumbup: