[Magic M3]

Strange, Calvin and I flushed mine about 2 years ago when the new head went on. BMW coolant was used with distilled water. I looked the other day, and the fluid in the overflow tank appears green. I've heard that eventually turns green and confirmed this with a buddy that owns an Indy Bosch auth service center. Not sure why but it just happens.

[M3n00b]

Every time I've changed mine its been blue.

...tapatalk...

[white-hot]

Yeah, blue. Just did the vert, bluish after 5 years. You running any other additives in there?

[aaron1996]

Originally Posted by Richardsperry

Look, it's not that hard.

If you are incapable of doing it yourself for whatever reason, take it to a qualified mechanic.

But, I'm betting it's the expansion tank. Either the small hose that goes in the top, or the level sensor at the bottom, or the tank itself split.

What ever it is, that's a pretty big leak.

Thank you sir Richard, so here is what I did. I drove from church back home and popped the hood immediately as I parked. I noticed hissing sounds form the middle of the engine which sounded more like a sprinkler. I then saw where the leak was coming from a small hose somewhere underneath everything visible on top. Cut the tip of the hose and clamped it back on. Here are a couple of photos of tip that was cut off and when I was done.

http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/.../Photo0210.jpg
http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/.../Photo0211.jpg

Then I bled the system again and plan on testing it later.

[aaron1996]

Car is running normal as it has been. Getting replacement hoses in hopefully by Saturday so I'll have no worries on leaks.

[MMMGP]

I refreshed my cooling system in March and discovered that one of my hoses (upper) appears to be defective. I ordered the Elaplast hoses from Pelican; upper, lower, and expansion tank to radiator hose, thinking I could save a couple bucks. Well.... bad move on my part.

First off, the expansions tank to radiator hose was incorrectly molded. The shape of the hose was way off so I left my review on the Pelican site (got a full refund) and I purchased an OE hose from the dealer.

Then a few months back, I began to notice a strange build-up/crystallization at each end of the upper radiator hose. The coolant appears to be seeping through the ply layer and is using this layer as an exit-to-atmosphere channel. This time around Pelican is not down with the full refund, instead they are sending me a new OE hose for $11. Eh, decent deal, but a new hose from thebmwpartstore.com is less than $16. I bet they think they are doing me a favor (originally I thought they were sending me an OE hose for free) but I just don't want to deal with it anymore. Send me the friggin' hose so I can put my cooling system refresh to bed for another 80K miles!

Point of the story is, don't cheap out! Get friggin' OE hoses from the dealer and call it a day! The lower hose is holding out, for now... but i'll be checking on it monthly.

As for the blue BMW coolant turning green, maybe this happens when Water Wetter is added to the cooling mixture?

[runindawg]

Aaron
I don't know what you plan but I would use that hose failure as a heads up that all hoses need to be replaced.
I just replaced every hose in the system on my '95. I am original owner and had already done the easy to get to hoses, but this time I did everything.
Some of them are a pain to get to but it can be done without pulling the intake manifold. I can't say which method would be quicker.

[aaron1996]

Originally Posted by runindawg

Aaron
I don't know what you plan but I would use that hose failure as a heads up that all hoses need to be replaced.
I just replaced every hose in the system on my '95. I am original owner and had already done the easy to get to hoses, but this time I did everything.
Some of them are a pain to get to but it can be done without pulling the intake manifold. I can't say which method would be quicker.

Thanks Nitram. Yes, it did give me a heads up. Hoses came in and also replaced radiator, water pump, and thermostat.