e6t.lab.rat

Early this year my coolant sensor o-ring failed. Had to replace a $30 sensor just for a simple and worn out o-ring. The sensor was fine. But seriously, not BMW nor any plumping shops had this particular size of o-ring. I checked Lowes, HD, House of Hose, etc. etc., no one. So I bought the sensor and did the repair in 5 minutes.

This past May my waterpump decides to quit on me too. The horrific sounds of screeching and squealing from my car at the MGM valet was not fun at all. I replaced my pump, thermostat and coolant (all OEM) to a nice price of a little more than $350. I could of gotten it cheaper using aftermarket but couldn't wait the 3-5 day delivery time. The dealers would of easily charged more than double that.

So now this. A broken coolant "vent pipe." Of course its made out of (cheap) plastic. That clamp you see is on both sides of this plastic pipe and its permanent. So BMW can't just sell you the plastic pipe, no no no, you have to buy the whole "kit," which includes two rubber hose and the plastic pipe for a whopping $63!! wtf eff me! I needed my car in an hour, so I had to improvised. Since there are rubber hoses on each end, I had the added flexibility of some slack which allowed me to just slide the broken end back in. The permanent clamp was a biotch to remove but I managed to get it off. I found a small hose clamp in my tool box which I used in its place. I will eventually replace with the OEM part ofcourse. Just not sure when lol.

Since the plastic pipe is now shorter, I wasn't able to insert it back into its respective clamps. So I just used a couple of wireties to secure it and now it works! Let me see, should I be proactive and replace my expansion tank too?!!

porksoda

sounds a lot better than how e39s were...

on my e39 when i did a full coolant overhaul (fan clutch, thermostat, waterpump, rad) i did not do the expansion tank... a month or two later the expansion tank started to leak.. pin hole leak and probably let in a lot of air in the coolant system.

I would just watch the coolant level and looks for coolant leaking from the expansion tank and replace it when needed.

e6t.lab.rat

now this just freakin scares me. with my luck, I can see this happening... soon. I noticed this by a small puddle of bluish/greenish fluid on my garage floor. I'll have to continue to monitor the fluids. thanks

Isaiah_Charles

Had the same leak, replaced the hose, no probs since then(knocks on wood)

Diamond

for a new water pump and thermo you got a heck of a deal. feel lucky you dont need an electric water pump as i do at the tune of 700 new.. Am not looking forward to that day!

devildawg712

So this literally just happened to me .

At first I just got the error message that my coolant was low so I just topped it off with some water, but after I had gotten out of my car I noticed that my car was leaking what obviously was coolant. After tracing back where the leak was coming from I hopped on the forum and found this thread along with a million other cooling system faults. I went back outside and took off the shield and saw that the coolant pipe did in fact crack almost 90% all the way through.

So I was able to "ghetto rig" the two ends together by cutting a short piece of aluminum I found and wrapped it white plumbers tape a few times so that I would be able to get a sung fit on both ends. It works ok while the car is running (so far), but as soon as I shut the car off all hell breaks loose as soon as what I believe is to be the coolant returning back to the reservoir.




I guess this is a blessing in disguise that this happens now and not 2 weeks from now as I will be driving back home to California at the end of this month.

For those of you who have experienced this can you chime in and let me know if you were able to take care of replacing the parts on your own or will I have to take it into the dealer or an Indy. . If I gotta dish out the loot I will. Hopefully they wont break me off. My CPO expired July 3rd.



Any help is much appreciated.

JR

kxmills

I had the same problem a year ago. I also performed a "bush" repair and I haven't had a problem since.

devildawg712

Yea,

as of right now, my "jerry rigged" seal is holding up quite well. I ended up redoing my first quick fix and bought a double sided metal coupler that fits ints the existing vent tube, some misc tubing, plumbers tape, sealant tape, and a new metal clasp to hold everything together. It's doing the job for now and after driving a bit and several PM's with other's who've have the issue it seems to hold up just fine.

I still purchased a new vent tube and I'm probably going to replace it anyways since I have it. the tube itself only cost 35 bucks from ECS tuning.

here is the diagram just incase someone else happens to have the same issue later down the road.

You want Part# 10

This isnt the actual coupler I used, but its the only picture they had available. The one I used was double sided with the long riveted part. I wrapped the both ends with plumbers tape and then inserted one end straight into the vent tube and the other into the new tube I purchased and then re-inserted the new piece into the existing rubber tube that was there previously.

Keep in mind that you need to pretty much break off the clasp that is already on the tube in order to easily take out the piece that has broken and remained inside the old tube. Once the clasp is off you can just use some needle nose pliers to take remove the broken part and re-insert your new tube. Clasp on your new clasp and you should be good to go. Hope this helps for any of you who have this problem int he future.

LJTX545I

The vent pipe was the first thing that broke on my car's cooling system. I replaced the cheap, plastic tube with a stainless steel one. I was going to insert a link to a post where I had a picture of this, but it doesn't show up in my profile, maybe due to the site update

LJTX545I

I have already replaced the expansion tank/reservoir, and all of my hoses will be new after I am finished with my current project. I have 120k miles on this car, but things like this did not happen to my Acura, which I put 210k miles on, or my 240SX, which I owned for 15 years and 160k miles. It's as if all these things are designed to expire after the 3 year/50k miles are up.