93 525i radiator problem

While driving to the store today, I noticed steam coming from under my hood. I looked at the temp gage and everything seemed normal. When I parked at the store I popped the hood and almost fell over from what I saw! The upper inlet pipe to the radiator had broken off and the radiator hose was just hanging there dumping antifreeze everywhere.

I managed to copple things back together and limp home, with several stops to add water to a now very hot radiator.

Has anyone encountered this problem and is there a fix? The upper portion of the radiator is some tpye of plastic and broke off very clean. Is there an adhesive on the market that can bond the pipe back to the radiator and survive in the hostile environment of cool/heat vibration?

If not, what are my options of acquiring a replacement radiator.

The car has 140K miles and still runs very well although the bottom of the doors are rusting.

Milo

Reply to
Milo
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"Milo" wrote

This is an extremely common problem. The guy writing the tech column for Roundel is of the opinion that radiators should be replaced every

80-100K miles because they WILL break.

Get a new one. They're relatively cheap. Do not try to repair it. Replace the water pump, thermostat and hoses while you're at it.

FloydR

Reply to
Floyd Rogers

Milo,

This is (unfortunately) a rather common failure mode for radiators in BMWs. The plastic hose pipes become brittle with age and temperature and break off as yours did. About all you can do is replace the entire radiator.

There are some aftermarket manufacturers that assemble the radiators with end tanks (inclusing the hose pipes) made from aluminum. They are about twice as expensive, but should last more than twice as long. I'm not sure if they make them for E34's though. So it depends on how long you intend to keep the car as to wehether it is worth the added cost.

Reply to
Fred W

It happened to me last year on my 1992 E30, 198000 km on it. I (hardly) negotiated a radiator in a junky yard: 50 Euros. Don't try to repair. It's not worth it. Bleed carefully the circuit when it's done.

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Reply to
frischmoutt

Uh, it's not just BMW radiators that do that. For every 10 people that try to reattach the neck one suceeds. Mercifully new rads aren't expensive.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

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