I think the quality is good but you have to know the German Government mandates they use recycled Plastic which affects a lot of our parts as they age.

I just replaced the seal in my vehicle . Right hand drive E70 2008. it took me about 1.5 hours from jack up to jack down.

1. passenger side wheel off
2. remove the little plastic bit where the drive shaft is
3. remove the thermostat housing .

I can imagine the difficulty for LHD vehicles

Xor, thank you for this. Just to clarify your steps (please correct me if I'm wrong):

1. Park vehicle with wheel turned right.
2. Remove wheel and plastic wheelwell liner.
3. Remove serpentine belt.
4. Remove alternator (was this done from above in the engine bay or from the wheelwell?)
5. Remove oil cooler lines from thermostat (do this while thermostat is still bolted to engine?)
6. Remove the 2 accessible thermostat bolts from the wheelwell.
7. Remove the last bolt (from above in the engine bay?)

Am I missing anything? Also, when you talk about protecting the radiator, do you mean the oil cooler radiator or the main coolant radiator? Thank you!

1. Park vehicle with wheel turned right.
Yes, but I was able to turn mine when the car was lifted (had a car on 2 stands).

2. Remove wheel and plastic wheelwell liner.
Correct

2.5 Remove the electrical fan to have enough room to work with an alternator
Take a picture of all metal and plastic clamps for all wires and hoses :thumbup:

3. Remove serpentine belt.
Correct, label the belt orientation

4. Remove alternator (was this done from above in the engine bay or from the wheelwell?)
Correct, done from above with MAIN radiator covered as you don't want to damage that fragile part. Alterator is very heavy.
- Undo all hose clamps and move all lines away.
- Remove the serpantine tensioner (will give you more room to work).
- Remove the belt pulley from the alternator (it's a must, the last boly is right under).
- Undo and remove 3 long bolts on the alternator
- Push the unit a bit down, twist a touch and slowly pull forward.
- When cables are accessible undo the electrical cables on its back. Some youtube videos are telling to remove the cables first (before pulling the alternator), but it's not about E70.

Before alternator re-installation make sure you tighten the nut (on the engine block itself) that guides the top alternator bolt, in my case it was yellowish. The outer thread on that nut is left-threaded (opposite from normal). This will save you a lot of time when you'll try to align that beast during re-installation.

5. Remove oil cooler lines from thermostat (do this while thermostat is still bolted to engine?)
No, I removed mine when the thermostat was out as there is one extra bolt to undo. Make sure you unplug the metal cooler lines from the radiator rubber lines first. And of course lines were bolted back to thermostat before the installation.

Find a good thermostat picture to see the bolts location. Most manuals are showing only 2 bolts, which is wrong in our case! Better find an actual product picture.

6. Remove the 2 accessible thermostat bolts from the wheelwell.
Correct, with several socket bar extensions, when the wheel is turned right, top left and bottom left bolts are accessible (both different T or E socket sizes.).

7. Remove the last bolt (from above in the engine bay?)
Correct. From above. Squeeze your hand inbetween all those hydraulic and coolant lines. Buy or "rent" a tiny camera in Home Depot to see what you're doing, have enough light. No rush, take your time, all is aluminum and fragile!!!

Am I missing anything? Also, when you talk about protecting the radiator, do you mean the oil cooler radiator or the main coolant radiator? Thank you!
Cover the main coolant radiator. You'll do a lot of hardwork from the engine bay.

I wiped everything I could. Make sure nothing gets into the thermostat opening when the unit is out as it's actually the engine.

This is great. Thank you! Wish me luck this weekend.

Well, I was successful. 7.5 hours. Not a fun job. No draining of cooling or P/S system.

To pull my fans out on our 2008 4.8L X5 I had to remove the top radiator hose , slip the fans up and out then reconnect, spilled less than a cup of coolant but I could not slip it out with the hose installed. Is there a way to do this without pulling the top hose off the radiator?
Congrats on doing the oil cooler in ONLY 7.5 hour. Much better than the 13 or more it took prior to this post.

The fan should just pull straight up. There is a tab on each side that holds it in. On the driver side, the tab on the fan housing that secures it to the radiator is actually hinged so it folds back onto itself so it can slip past the hose.

Thanks for that tip, I am replacing my AC compressor and need to install the fans again.
This is after Oil Cooler lines, coolant tube under manifold, valve ant timing covers and all fluids and hoses. I am ready for this project to end. Many tips here have helped.

Jealous here, so fast! Good job! :thumbup:

Any issues? Anything was done different? Tips for society? :popcorn: