News to me on the E60. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Gladly! One less things to do.

 

Hello tstiglich, have you ever done the water pump/thermostat replacement on your xdrive? I am finding it extremely difficult to reach the hose clamps. Any thoughts?

 

I did, and it was a pain. All I can say is to try different angles of approach. I remember one where I seemingly had to loosen the nut 1/32 of a revolution at a time.

 

Try from the top, the side, the bottom.... It is doable. One thing that I remember, was making the chose connection between the water pump and thermostat during installation. I used the 90 degree bend of a caulk gun to pull it into place.

 

Tight spacing. You will need universal joints and small ignition wrenches. At least I did.

 

The good news is that if you have to do the job again, it will be much easier. By definition, the hose clamps will be positioned in such a way for easy removal, as they were placed in a manner for easy tightening.

 

Making progress. Slow but sure. Removed a lot of other hoses to make room. Thanks for all the tips! One of the tougher jobs I have ever done for sure. I just try to keep thinking of all the money I'm saving. Ha!

 

For pre-emptive hose replacement, just the mickey-mouse fitting and the top hose with the plastic section that runs above the radiator from the upper rad connection to the expansion tank (N54 application, others may have similar). No need to buy the hose with the MM fitting, just get a billet replacement MM fitting and clamp your old hose to it. Unless you disturb clip-on hoses, they're pretty durable. If you R&R the clip-on hoses, there is a chance of leaking due to the o-rings having taken a 'set' and have a flat spot. The o-ring can twist on re-assembly hence the leak. There's an eBay seller who kits the needed o-rings so you can R&R the hoses with new o-rings for cheap. The hoses themselves are EPDM and very long lasting.

Replacing the water pump and thermostat on the xi is a major PITA. Much easier if you have a hoist. I did mine whilst on my back on a cold garage floor. It was hard to get my arms in the right angles to reach all of the connections, so it was a lot of skooching around to achieve the needed angle which would have been simple were I standing under the car rather than lying under it. I had the rad and intercooler out at the time so there was more working room - still a pain.

 

Hi hear you audiophool. The hose from the top of the water pump to the engine inlet (4" hose) was especially ridiculous so I cut the thing off and I am now trying to get that crazy clamp off the tube. Have a Dremel tool and will cut the special clamp with that hopefully. Very hard to reach.This may be the hard way but it is all I could figure out. New hose on order.
The quality of these hoses is very high and I am keeping most of them. Thanks for the tip on the "O" rings!

Yes, lots of scrooching around. Cardboard is much warmer than concrete!

Thank you. I appreciate your and tstiglich's help!

UPDATE: Got the final spring style hose clamp off of the steel engine inlet pipe with a Dremel cut-off wheel. Yay. Those buggers are tough!
When new hose arrives, time to assemble.