BMW radiator leak and recommended replacements?

Pepe Silvia said:
2009 BMW E90 328i AT with 140k km

I was replacing my radiator fan and noticed that my radiator appears to be leaking from both ends where the tubes join the header plates. Has anyone seen a radiator with the same failure? I'm curious if I can continue driving until I can change the radiator, or if something like this will fail catastrophically and leave me stranded.

No meaningful change in coolant level (yet). On a related topic, my radiator fan just stopped working and coolant temps hit 120C at idle. For what it's worth, "component protection" mode where engine and AC power is reduced starts at 117C. At 120C, a yellow warning is triggered before a red warning comes up at 125C for "emergency" mode.

My choices for replacement radiators in Canada are basically limited to what RockAuto offers. Do you have any opinions or feedback for the following:
  1. Denso 2219405 (Indonesia or China?), $159.53 (wholesaler closeout, $233.20 regularly)
  2. CSF 3718 (China?), $180.38
  3. TYC 2882 (Taiwan), $183.45
  4. Nissens 60786A (Slovakia), $223.46
  5. Mahle/Behr CR1711000P (South Africa), $286.01
  6. BMW 17117562079 (Germany), $716.64
I would normally default to the Mahle/Behr as it's the closest thing to OE, but many recent reports of premature failure and leaking on E90 specific forums.
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Buy a Nissens. The installation of aftermarket cooling system parts is strictly verboten!
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
I'm most likely going to order the Nissens radiator from RA. It comes with the upper, lower and passenger side lower hose o-rings, so I'll also order a Uro (yuck) o-ring for the transmission cooler connection since that's all RA has. There seems to be some confusion over the included "valves" but it looks like you use both longer valves for AT and if the passenger side lower port is used.

Coolant is surprisingly the cheapest at the dealer. There's some debate on whether you use distilled or deionized water for mixing (I've always used distilled) and the instructions on the coolant bottles do not specify. I could only find a small footnote from Pentosin recommending either distilled or deionized so I guess it doesn't matter.

I already have an aluminum Mickey Mouse flange and vent line, but will consider replacing the expansion tank as well. With the recent drop in quality of parts, I'm hesitant to replace parts needlessly...
 
I'm lukewarm on the SA-made Behr I got a few years ago. The fit and finish is a bit lacking, but worse, it's not evenly plumb, and ever so slightly torqued, which I didn't realize until after I installed it, and found the fan shroud didn't fit properly without some "english."

Next time, I'm going with Nissens.
 
I finally got around to replacing the radiator. Confirmed that the factory radiator was a Modine unit, made in Germany. It was leaking on both sides where the tubes enter the end tanks (as pictured earlier) and also at the bottom of each end tank crimp. I tried re-crimping it with locking pliers but that only made it leak faster.

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The Nissens radiator was well packaged as it was "suspended" within a larger cardboard box. There was no country of origin identified on the radiator or packaging but RockAuto's packing slip and FCP's website say Slovakia. Nothing really stood out and it seemed fine, and fit perfectly.

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The aftermarket radiators come with plugs/valves of varying length to fit different applications. The included instructions do a decent job of explaining this, but the valves feel too fragile to experiment with. Basically:
1. LHS: AT = long valve, MT = short valve to block off the AT cooler port from the end tank
2. RHS: if the bottom most port is used, then long valve. Otherwise short valve to block off that port from the end tank

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The push-to-connect fittings are a pain but the upper radiator hose was next level. I ended up breaking the entire barb off the old radiator while trying to wiggle the fitting off. It was fused so tightly that I had to chisel it out.

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I was too lazy to replace all of the o-rings and only replaced the upper radiator hose o-ring since it was so problematic. Everything went back together with a very light layer of dielectric/silicone grease.

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As for coolant, I used a gallon "OEM" Euro I mixed with a gallon of distilled water. Euro I is G48 as far as I can tell, except that it is yellow: https://oemeasymatch.com/products/oem-extended-life-euro-i-antifreeze-coolant/
 
The installation of aftermarket cooling system parts is strictly verboten.
 
Marcozi said:
The installation of aftermarket cooling system parts is strictly verboten.
Click to expand...

I always stay with OE when possible, but there are no OE options here (Behr is not OE before anyone says so). I'm having a real Ship of Theseus moment after using a TYC fan and Nissens radiator!

I'm also losing sleep over not replacing the rest of the o-rings!
 
Kantaro said:
I always stay with OE when possible, but there are no OE options here (Behr is not OE before anyone says so). I'm having a real Ship of Theseus moment after using a TYC fan and Nissens radiator!

I'm also losing sleep over not replacing the rest of the o-rings!
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Yeah that part bothered me as well, a lot more than the brand of the replacement radiator.

My BMW ate o-rings for breakfast along with every plastic clip and fastener.
 
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