Who's changed their radiator in an E34 540i?

[Cambridge]

There was more angst in thinking about the work than in actually doing it.

Here's the procedure and pictures: How to replace a 540 radiator

I actually did this twice. The first replacement radiator I put in was defective. Looks like it was damaged in shipping. If you do this a couple times you can get quite good at it!

Although my car is an automatic, there were no connections to the transmission to worry about. Maybe that is also the case on 94 540i's.

This diagram may be helpful: Radiator Parts Diagram

Since I had to be up under the car anyway, I took the time to flush the cooling system. This is a little more involved; you need to drain coolant from the block, too. There are drain plugs on either side of the block.

[Pixcutter]

Well, it is the radiator. Since I'm really new to the car I decided I want to have a pro handle this job... but I got in good with the local BMW expert.
How does $432 sound for a new behr radiator, hoses, clamps, other misc. parts, OEM BMW fluid, and labor?

I thought that sounded pretty reasonable.

Where did you get the radiator. The BEST my mechanic could find was $800!! I'm in S. Cal (Los Angeles) and he tried all the way to san Diego.

[dacoyote]

Where did you get the radiator. The BEST my mechanic could find was $800!! I'm in S. Cal (Los Angeles) and he tried all the way to san Diego.

Darn... I think BMA is cheaper then that.....

[mattyb]

beat me to it! I was just going to recommend that awesome write up with pics that u did.

[Tiger]

Not hard at all... just take your time.

[MBXB]

It took me and a buddy about 40 minutes to swap out the 540 radiator using Cambridge's well documented procedure.
We did use a wet/dry shop vac to suck up the old coolant to minimize the mess. That helped a lot.
The old clips were brittle, so we just broke off the old ones and replaced them.