Allen

Ok...so there is a small silver-finned radiator and a large black-finned radiator. The large black one is for cooling the water that goes through the engine...I am sure which one it is. The small silver one is located in a vertical plane (like the black one) on the very bottom of the engine towards the front of the car and has a very large hose connected to the bottom right (if looking from under the front bumper of the car). This hose is ~3" diameter, so it certainly must carry air...? The hose runs right next to a ~4" pulley for some sort of pump I guess.

Anyway, I hit some debris, and that silver radiator was damaged (bottom crushed upward very slightly) & moved slightly. I have no warnings and all runs fine. However, there is very slight oil leaking (so I assume this radiator carries oil) from the bottom of it. So, I am getting a new radiator. Well, as it turns out...the 3" hose was also jammed into the pulley, and the pulley has severley eaten a 2" gash into the hose. I don't know what the hose goes to on the top side, but whatever it is, certainly must have rubber hose shaving all up in it...not to mention the results of a 2" gash in the hose. So does anyone know what this hose is and where it goes and what is the consequence of rubber shavings getting into where ever it goes?

BTW...I looked at RealOEM parts an d could NOT find this radiator...it's about 14" high X 24" wide X 1" thick.

Allen

hmmm....anyone....?

Hopco

Try these URLs to RealOem:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partgrp.do?mode...hg=17&fg=05

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mo...hg=17&fg=05

and

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mo...hg=13&fg=20

Allen

Ok...so here is a picture of the hose. This came from a news site when the inline-6 turbo was first being introduced, so it doesn't look exactly like the current production hose & intercooler, but the functinality should be the same.

I have drawn an arrow pointing to the hose that has a 2" gash in it...where the pulley rubbed through it. What does this hose do, and what are the consequences of small rubber shavings getting up into it's air stream? The good news (I hope)...it appears that this hose does not directly feed into the turbos. It appears to feed somewhere into the opposite side of the engine. Here is the site that I took this from...it has some really good pictures of the engine.

Item #18 on the RealOEM Parts diagram is: "Charge Air Induction Tract"

pukka

From reading your post, there are three things you should be concerned about. The first being the coolant radiator which you have already addressed.

Its been awhile since I've seen this pic - but the silver radiator should be the air intercooler and the hose your arrow is pointing at directs air to/from another specific component of the turbo-charger system (Hopefully someone else can chime in). Its quite possible that any particles that got caught in this airstream could clog something and cause serious damage, so getting it checked and repaired is a must.

You mentioned you are leaking oil. I'm not sure if the air intercooler has oil passages within it. But I would be more concerned that a hose/pipe running from your oil cooler has been damaged and thus causing the leak.

Hope this helps.

pukka

After taking another look at the pic the hose your arrow points at is going back up toward the intake manifold. Thus the hose carries cooled air back into the engine and away from the turbos. So its possible that any particles there would most likely be trapped by your air filter.

Allen

You know the guy at the body shop said that intercooler carried oil...which didn't seem right to me...mostly because there isn't any oil lines coming in/out of that radiator...it seems to only deal with air. So I think the oil I found around that hose connection (and it was in the immediate surrounding area as well), has dripped from some other nearby location, because I don't think there is oil associated with that radiator/intercooler.

The car is currently at the body shop getting this resolved, but my concern is that they will replace that hose, intercooler, and whatever is leaking oil...without regard for whatever may be damaged from the ingestion of the hose shavings. I did however drive the car ~200 miles with this hose gashed...there were no signs or lights/messages...until I found an oil drip on the ground and crawled under to investigate.

Thanks for the replies guys...

Allen

So the air kinda go in (intake) on the right side of the engine and out (exhaust) on the left side?

pukka

Yes.
The left side of the pic is where the turbos are located which is nested in/near the ehaust manifold.
The exhuast is fed through the intercooler and then back into the intake for recirculation.

Allen

Just looking at RealOEM at the airfilter housing, I'm afraid that this hose does not go through the filter. It seem to be directed under the filter housing. If anyone can take a look under thier hood I would appreciate it.