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Yeup, looks like im doing this as well. I noticed some coolant dripping off the back side of the motor when finishing/cleaning up the oil cooler gasket. Seems like right around 60,000 these problems occur for everyone. Oh yeah, before I tackled the oil cooler seal I got a price quote from bmw to do it and they told me $1500 for parts and labor because they said it was 12-15hrs labor time. It took me three. So thanks again, this right up saved me money now and will in the near future.

Great job.. I will use this write up some day to perform work on my x5.. Thank you.

Great, I'm glad I can help.

I keep on coming back to this great DIY! Just used it as a guide to replace my knock sensor. :thumbup:

ART, not borrowing wife's car lately? lol, glad you like it Sir.

:beerchug:

Great write up!

I'm afraid I too may have the dreaded pipe leak. I'm curious, if one were to go with another OEM pipe instead of the aftermarket one how much more work does it entail?

Also, anyone have any input on the kit ECS sells?

BMW E70 X5 xDrive48i N62 4.8L Search SiteSearch 11141439975 - 11141439975KT5 - advanced Water Pipe Service Kit - ES#2738449

The thing that needs to be said is that if you see the leak from top of your engine, under the valley pan, it most likely is not the coolant exchange pipe that is leaking. In this case it mostly is the valley pan gasket that failed. However; since the pipe will fail in time it's suggested you do both together.

As for what type of the pipe to use? I chose the more expensive one because it is threaded internally. The pipe you are looking at has a keeper that should hold it in place. I did not want to worry and the price difference of $400.00 was something I could deal with.

As for the oem pipe: forget about it. You will have to take the entire timing off the front of the block in order to slide the oem pipe as it was intended. You should expect that to cost about 7K+

using this write up. great help. just waiting for the parts to arrive now. noticed coolant flowing out of the weep hole in the timing cover yesterday. took it apart today. all of the gaskets looked good, water pump gasket, valley pump gasket. I guess the actual coolant exchange pipe gasket failed... my car has only 117km (70k miles) on it.
I ordered the URO pipe kit, water pump replacement kit from ECS and the N62 gasket kit from AGA

Total parts cost:
URO pipe kit $229.95
ECS Water pump replacement kit: $194.26
N62 Gasket Kit $207.35
2nd day shipping from ECS $49.36
2nd day shipping from AGA $50.52
Total: $731.44

by the way, has anyone tried the repair kit sold by Bmw N62 Coolant Pipe - Bimmerfix Products Bmw N62 V8 Coolant Transfer Pipe Repair Kit For Bmw 545i 550i 645ci 650i 745i 750i X5 And More By Bimmerfix Products
it looks like a very simple way to fix the problem, i just don't know if it's very reliable....

Thanks for the added info. Still weighing all my options. At this point it sounds like it's the valley pan gasket and not the pipe as you can definitely see the coolant puddling from above:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...olant_leak.jpg

Really leaning towards the ECS kit with the URO pipe at the moment.