[gde061]

Back in December my upper radiator hose blew apart at the click-on connector. Now a smaller mystery hose had the same thing happen. Anyone know what the name / part no. is for the connector / hose circled in the pictures?

It looks like it's going to be tight to disconnect the lower end of this hose... and also tricky to get at that connector clip on what's left of the upper end. Any advice about the best way to go about it?

Finally, when this happened last time, I remember reading a very detailed post about the N54 cooling system (it might have been a post here, or a page linked to by a post here). It explained at what temps different things are supposed to happen with the thermostat / water pump. I can't for the life of me find that webpage again. Anyone happen to know the one I'm talking about and have a link to it??

Thanks!

p.s. -- I am seriously thinking about taking this car to a shop and tell them replace all the hoses and rubber under the hood. However the place I'd probably take it to is 25 miles away, so any tricks for cobbling this broke hose together just long enough to get me there?

[gde061]

OK, last things first -- I found where I read about the cooling systems... buried on the forum here are these BMW University modules that had those details about the coolant pathways, etc. If your like me and can't parse 1,000 search hits easily, here's the link: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1360573 (scroll down a few posts from the top)

Then for the quick-fix thing: there are some threads here about getting a metalic coupling that you put on the head after removing the plastic OEM one, and then attach the hose to that...

. I think that might work for me to get to a shop, but I'm not sure it's the same hose. I think mine has one of those "snap on" connectors on it, but it's hard to see for sure.

As far as I can come up with, I'm thinking this is the "Cylinder head to thermostat hose", P/N 11537541992 but it would be really great if someone could confirm that for me whose had to fix this also.

[Efthreeoh]

Yes. That is the t-stat to head hose.

[arkie6]

DIY fix thread: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1618232

Replacement aluminum hose fitting: https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-335i-11...53.m1438.l2649

[gde061]

Originally Posted by arkie6

DIY fix thread: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1618232

Replacement aluminum hose fitting: https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-335i-11...53.m1438.l2649

Good stuff -- I've gotten less and less trusting of eBay... seems there are more shady sellers than legit these days, and hard to spot the legit ones as they are lumping reviews under "products" results rather than specific listings. However that fitting is 1/3 the price of the one I saw at ECS's website, so I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for the links!

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by gde061

Good stuff -- I've gotten less and less trusting of eBay... seems there are more shady sellers than legit these days, and hard to spot the legit ones as they are lumping reviews under "products" results rather than specific listings. However that fitting is 1/3 the price of the one I saw at ECS's website, so I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for the links!

I got my parts for the aluminum bib on Amazon.

[nsjames]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

I got my parts for the aluminum bib on Amazon.

same.

[///Mik3]

if you are ready to just bring it to a shop but the shop is only 25 miles away, why not just tow it?

[gde061]

Got the aluminium hose bib recommended above. Was able to fish out the part of the old bib that was in the hose with my finger. However it basically came out missing huge chunks so now I think I either need to shop vac out the hose and/or get under the car and disconnect at the t-stat and inspect for debris.

On top of that, the other side of the plastic bib cracked off in the head so I had to fish that out with my finger and carefully try to get it cleaned out with a rag. Whatever the plastic is, it is so brittle it literally crumbles in my fingers into dust.

Seriously, is this normal? Car had Blue coolant, so I don't think it was from an incompatible antifreeze... but the orange/brownish tint makes me thing maybe oil in coolant -- either way it looks like chemicals dissolved it to me!

[smass]

Originally Posted by gde061

Got the aluminium hose bib recommended above. Was able to fish out the part of the old bib that was in the hose with my finger. However it basically came out missing huge chunks so now I think I either need to shop vac out the hose and/or get under the car and disconnect at the t-stat and inspect for debris.

On top of that, the other side of the plastic bib cracked off in the head so I had to fish that out with my finger and carefully try to get it cleaned out with a rag. Whatever the plastic is, it is so brittle it literally crumbles in my fingers into dust.

Seriously, is this normal? Car had Blue coolant, so I don't think it was from an incompatible antifreeze... but the orange/brownish tint makes me thing maybe oil in coolant -- either way it looks like chemicals dissolved it to me!

Yes it is normal. I just changed every hose on my 06. The only 2 that were bad were the 2 you changed already. The hot engine ruins the plastic fittings inside the hoses. The rest of the hoses don't get cooked like those 2 do. My theory is they get hotter than the rest of the hoses after each engine shut down. None of the other hoses have plastic connected directly to the engine.

[gde061]

Apparently that's not all that gets ruined... the little pop-up dip-sticky thing in the coolant tank broke off as I was going through the air purge procedure and caught it on the cap... it was all crumbly and brown too.

Anyway, to give a complete update... I did use a shop vac with a long piece of tubing attached with duct-tape to snake out that t-stat coolant hose and came up with what looks like it is the chunk that went missing from that hose bib in the picture. Clamped down the hose to the new aluminum hose bib, the way it's been done forever and no leaks, did a 10 minute test drive, temp gauge stayed on cold side and so I hope that's the end of this episode. However I'm still a little put-off about the water pump possibly running dry (the refill basically took 6+ quarts of coolant!) so I'm going to see about getting someone to do a complete cooling system "refresh" as it seems to be called.

[mecheng77]

Originally Posted by gde061

OK, last things first -- I found where I read about the cooling systems... buried on the forum here are these BMW University modules that had those details about the coolant pathways, etc. If your like me and can't parse 1,000 search hits easily, here's the link: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1360573 (scroll down a few posts from the top)

Then for the quick-fix thing: there are some threads here about getting a metalic coupling that you put on the head after removing the plastic OEM one, and then attach the hose to that...

. I think that might work for me to get to a shop, but I'm not sure it's the same hose. I think mine has one of those "snap on" connectors on it, but it's hard to see for sure.

As far as I can come up with, I'm thinking this is the "Cylinder head to thermostat hose", P/N 11537541992 but it would be really great if someone could confirm that for me whose had to fix this also.

Originally Posted by gde061

OK, last things first -- I found where I read about the cooling systems... buried on the forum here are these BMW University modules that had those details about the coolant pathways, etc. If your like me and can't parse 1,000 search hits easily, here's the link: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1360573 (scroll down a few posts from the top)

Then for the quick-fix thing: there are some threads here about getting a metalic coupling that you put on the head after removing the plastic OEM one, and then attach the hose to that...

. I think that might work for me to get to a shop, but I'm not sure it's the same hose. I think mine has one of those "snap on" connectors on it, but it's hard to see for sure.

As far as I can come up with, I'm thinking this is the "Cylinder head to thermostat hose", P/N 11537541992 but it would be really great if someone could confirm that for me whose had to fix this also.

Can you just cut the hose like in the video? I looked at my hose and there isn't much slack and it could be too short?

[gde061]

Originally Posted by mecheng77

Can you just cut the hose like in the video? I looked at my hose and there isn't much slack and it could be too short?

I followed the tutorial in the PDF linked by arkei6 -- for me it didn't look like there would be enough hose if I cut it off as well... but also in my case, cutting wouldn't have mad a difference because the hose bib had already fragmented -- I'd still have had to snake out the debris / disconnect at the t-stat.

Another thing I don't like about the way he does it in the video is that connecting the hose first, then trying to connect the coupler to the block increase the chance of cross threading the bolts in the head. The PDF tutorial is pretty explicit on this point. My 335xi had extra oil-cooler lines running from the oil filter housing, so it was a real tight fit to get onto those bolts and start them up properly by hand -- I wouldn't want to be fighting with the connected hose when doing that. My guess is that the particular 525i application in the video has more allowance so cutting the hose worked for him, but might not work for a 3 series.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by gde061

I followed the tutorial in the PDF linked by arkei6 -- for me it didn't look like there would be enough hose if I cut it off as well... but also in my case, cutting wouldn't have mad a difference because the hose bib had already fragmented -- I'd still have had to snake out the debris / disconnect at the t-stat.

Another thing I don't like about the way he does it in the video is that connecting the hose first, then trying to connect the coupler to the block increase the chance of cross threading the bolts in the head. The PDF tutorial is pretty explicit on this point. My 335xi had extra oil-cooler lines running from the oil filter housing, so it was a real tight fit to get onto those bolts and start them up properly by hand -- I wouldn't want to be fighting with the connected hose when doing that. My guess is that the particular 525i application in the video has more allowance so cutting the hose worked for him, but might not work for a 3 series.

There is no reason to cut the hose. It would be too short if it was cut. I decided to bolt the aluminum bib into the head first for two reasons: (1) reduces the chance of stripping the mounting bolts into the head; (2) takes any guess work out of correctly orienting the new hose bib to the hose. The hose naturally orients itself to the bib if the bib is installed into the head first.

[Gamb1t]

Planning to do mine....it's original!
How did u remove the metal collar on the hose? In fact how do u detach the plastic connector from the hose? Just yank it?

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by Gamb1t

Planning to do mine....it's original!
How did u remove the metal collar on the hose? In fact how do u detach the plastic connector from the hose? Just yank it?

www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1618232

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by Gamb1t

Planning to do mine....it's original!
How did u remove the metal collar on the hose? In fact how do u detach the plastic connector from the hose? Just yank it?

I would just use a dremmel. If you don't have any try a flat blade but that might screw up the hose.

[Wolf 335]

Originally Posted by TheMidnightNarwhal

I would just use a dremmel. If you don't have any try a flat blade but that might screw up the hose.

No need to dremmel anything, as you run a risk of damaging the hose.

Follow the pdf instructions and simply crush the clamp with the bib inside it.
Once the plastic is broken remove it and simply slide off the old clamp.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by Wolf 335

No need to dremmel anything, as you run a risk of damaging the hose.

Follow the pdf instructions and simply crush the clamp with the bib inside it.
Once the plastic is broken remove it and simply slide off the old clamp.

Honestly I don't think crushing and deforming old hose is great either. Dremmel seems like better option IMO. Or just make a half deep slit and pry it off easy. Just like the intercooler pipings.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by TheMidnightNarwhal

Honestly I don't think crushing and deforming old hose is great either. Dremmel seems like better option IMO. Or just make a half deep slit and pry it off easy. Just like the intercooler pipings.

Come on man, it's a RUBBER hose reinforced with nylon thread. It's supposed to flex, that is why they are made of rubber...

One slip of a Dremel cutting wheel will trash a perfectly good $65 hose.

[Gamb1t]

Originally Posted by Wolf 335

No need to dremmel anything, as you run a risk of damaging the hose.

Follow the pdf instructions and simply crush the clamp with the bib inside it.
Once the plastic is broken remove it and simply slide off the old clamp.

Crushing + My Clumsiness + Proximity to Vital Engine Parts = Bad Things.

[mrdavidjin]

Are you referring to these lines?

I'm also trying to figure out what these hoses/pipes under the engine are.