Well it finally happened to me at 69k miles, My expansion tank cracked and the valley pipe o ring went out and gave me that pricey leak.

Lucky for me I heard about All German Auto and they referred me to a local indy here that did the repair for 2250.00 for both of those things.

Some lame Indy had the audacity to quote me 6000.00 just for the valley pipe and they do not even remove the water pump during the process.

 

I replaced all of mine for $700



(using URO's cheaper version and doing the work myself, in a parking lot no less, lol)

 

Wow, at 69k miles. That is low mileage for a 545i. Mine is at 115k with original tank and pipe (knock on wood).

 

Yeah I only drive it about 5k miles a year and then use my motorcycle for the rest.

I wish I could have done it myself, I just did not have the experience to not worry about ruining something.

 

I replaced my tank at around 91k a few months ago and (knock on wood) it stopped my "low coolant" warnings.

Just last weekend I wanted to see if there were any pieces of the coolant level stick still inside the old tank, so I smashed it open with a pickaxe. Once I broke the outer wall, I was able to just crumble the inside walls between two fingers. Mine was on the verge of complete failure. These tanks just do not stand the test of time or miles.

Crossing my fingers on the valley pipe etc...

 

I looked at the URO valley pipe on ebay and that seems like a good alternative to the all german auto pipe. It does not seems to be as robust as theirs, but easily as much as the oem pipe.

I still can not believe my pipe failed at 69k miles. Then again, it is 9 years old now and the uroparts install video for their part showed one failing at 40k miles.

 

My car is 2005 545i with miles 119k miles and last week I noticed that my valley pipe started to leak.

I ordered new pipe from All German Auto. I am going to work on that next weekend.

 

I guess it's time to replace mine, no need waiting for it to go bad. I am at 64k miles and based on this thread; it makes sense to do it now to avoid it happening on a road trip! That would really suck!

 

I believe the all german one is a bit overkill. After I figured out what has to seal and what doesn't really have to, I figured out that all that really matters is the front seal where it stops water from going between the block/timing cover. The rear seal doesn't have to seal (there's actually a hole in the block under where the pipe goes that lets water go between the the area where the pipe connects in the rear and the "valley" anyways, so it's not so crucial. The front seal keeps the water from the pipe AND the water that is in the valley from leaking out through the small space between the block and timing cover. A lot of people don't understand that the valley ALWAYS has coolant in it. That isn't the problem or a sign of a problem. It's crazy how they designed this really. The the pipe "halves" don't really have to seal either, but I wouldn't want them grossly leaking. Here is my thread on it with tons of pictures.

Another one bites the dust... (coolant transfer pipe on N62) - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

It's not too bad of a job. Again, read the thread I posted and I think it will help a lot. Personally I replaced a lot of other things while I was in there, fuel injector seals, intake gaskets, CCV pipes (updated to new style), etc. I personally didn't think the all german pipe was worth the difference in cost after I figured out how it all worked, but it certainly does look like a top of the line version of what it is

It can be done for $700'ish in parts if you can do the wrenching.. If I had realized that, I would have ordered parts months ago and saved myself a $300 rental car bill while I was waiting on parts. I think I put a parts list somewhere in that thread that shows exactly what I replaced. Some of it you can probably get by without, especially if the plastic on yours isn't as brittle as mine

 

Here I am replying late to my own thread.
Ncsugrad, I think it's great you did all of that work for 700.00, and now that I realize that anyone with some wrenching ability, a manual or DIY pics and text, can do it, I would go with the URO pipe instead and use the savings to do some extra preventative care.

I have a fried that needs to do some work on his car, but his apartment will not let me do it their, so I told him about you doing it in a parking lot! LOL. Looks like he is going to find himself a parking to do some major work on his car.

I saw another guy in my e46 forum do a manual transmission swap in what looked like a park parking lot. Awesome.