Replacing the E30 Heater Core and Valve

[Uliv1c]

Started mine on a 87/325is .,. Havent got the orings yet . Are those only oem or can I get them at any parts store????

[Mr.SWISS]

Car had a heater valve gushing when I got it. Since I replaced and reattached hoses it has heat at idle and low speed, but over 55 mph is noda. Car has had a rebuilt head, used heater valve (no leaks,piston moves),new waterpump and thermo. no leaks, I am going to go out now and swap the hoses as the PO had the same prob.

[davem]

Do you need to drain any coolant before you disconnect the hoses to the firewall? Would draining the rad be enough? Or is it not even necessary at all?

[archie]

Mine shit on me last week also on my 88 M3.

[davem]

what exactly is happening here? ^ plastic tank leaking?

One of my o-rings is shot and my water valve must have blown its internal seals.

[archie]

Not exactly sure to be honest.
Driving home and turned on my street and steam came out from all my vents. Carpet soaked by my gas pedal and that was it.

Im storing a few cars for a mechanic at my tow yard and he said he would fix my car in trade. So I dont have to do the job. I was gonna do it but he offered for the storage trade.

[blackhawkimpact]

Not exactly sure to be honest.
Driving home and turned on my street and steam came out from all my vents. Carpet soaked by my gas pedal and that was it.

This happen to me to, I got scared. Thought the car was gonna blow up lol

[davem]

Damn, pulled everything out because my heater valve was leaking... there's some white coolant residue in the compartment where the heater core sits... fuckin' e30...

[Desaevious]

Damn, so my heater core doesn't appear to be leaking but where the metal pipes come out of the firewall and into the two hoses you guys connect as a bypass is loose and leaking. The hoses are on there and the clamps are good, but I can see coolant trickling from the connection and straight down. What are the odds that the metal pipes are somehow bad? This problem happened out of the blue...

[Grand525]

I'd just replace the inlet and outlet pipes, since they are not too hard to get like the whole heater core.

[Desaevious]

Yeah there really isn't any thing I can continue theorizing but I can't get to it for another three days because of work. :(

[De //m3]

Sucks. When mine ate it I noticed my foot burning, then realized coolant was dripping down from the water valve onto my right feet.

Same condensation on windshield as well, but relatively simple to repair, about an hour.

[luckysnafu]

Just an FYI for anybody ordering the pipes for this DIY:

UPDATE Feb 10:

My dealer sucks. There are over 230 of these available right now in Germany. None in the US so you will have to wait a couple of weeks to get one in. Mine came in today even though the dealer had no idea what was going on. Blunttech has them in stock as well if you need one faster.

[DuxNW]

Where are you guys getting the pipes from?

[mr walker]

I called Blunttech after not being able to find the pipes on their website (or any other place for that matter), and they hooked me up. This was right around the holidays, so availability may have changed since then (that appears to be the case per the above post). They were pretty cheap IIRC.

I asked the dealer first...they wanted $50. For each pipe. F that.