Mine is a March 1990 535i. Per Patrick at BMA, it takes the other heater core shown on RealOEM, not the one you posted. The other one apparently has 3 aluminum tubes rather than the plastic tubes and extra O-ring fittings shown in your picture.Originally Posted by ryan roopnarine
As I have neither received my new HC kit from BMA nor dis-assembled the console in the car for access, my mental picture is limited to impressions from various internet pictures, drawings, Bentley, etc.. With my luck, the car will reveal itself to have yet another configuration.
From what I've read here on bimmer.info and on Roadfly, coupled with pics posted and the Bentley, I gather that Bentley procedure seems the fastest and most efficient. One guy says he got this down to ~3.5 hours, yet others have taken a couple of days, including removal of the whole dashboard, steering wheel, etc..
Most of the reported trouble seems to arise from the difficulty of perfectly aligning the rigid alu. or plastic tubes to their O-ring fittings. Seems to me, some flexible coolant hose (of the sort used all over the place underhood) and some stainless hose clamps would do wonders with this application: You don't have to fight with flexible coolant hose for that last bit of positioning. Maybe cut the stock alu. tubes a few inches inside the firewall, remove and discard a ~10" section, to be replaced with coolant hose spliced in. Whatdya think?
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