How to Replace Radiator Overflow Tank Mounting Plate 2001-05 BMW 325Xi

What's up, guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video I'm going to show you how to replace this radiator overflow tank mounting plate for an automatic transmission on this 2001 BMW 325xi. If you need this part or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description, head over to 1AAuto.com.

With the trunk open, over on the right side or the passenger side, there should be a cover that goes right here. This vehicle doesn't have one, but you're going to want to remove that cover. Battery is located right here. First thing I'm going to do is take a 10 millimeter socket and ratchet, loosen up this nut for the negative terminal. That's loose. Slide off the cable, slide it out of the way.

I'm going to take these push pins out right here. I'm just going to use some side cutters. Get this center pin, pull that up, and then slide it out. Be careful not to cut those up. Just grab this piece, slide it out. We're going to disconnect this connector right here. Just push down on that, slide that out. There's another connector right here. I'm going to slide the wiring out first just like that, and then the connector will come out. Just slide that to the side like that.

I'm going to take a T-25 and a ratchet, take this screw out right here. I'm just going to use this trim tool from 1AAuto.Community, take this push clip out. Get in there, pull that out. Right, now that is loose, but what we need to do is we need to take the fan off, because the fan has to come out with the shroud as one.

What we need to do to take the fan off is we need to disconnect the fan clutch from the engine side. This is attached to one of the pulleys right there. Sometimes these are somewhat difficult to get off, so what we're going to do is use this tool. We actually sell this at 1AAuto.com with many different sizes. This happens to be the 32 millimeter. That's going to slide on there, and then we slide this on, and with a pneumatic air hammer we're going to give it a couple of bumps and it's going to loosen up that nut, and we should be able to get it off.

All right, so now I'm going to take the tool. Now this fan clutch happens to be on there reverse thread, so it's going to seem like you're tightening it, but you're actually loosening it. We'll go like that, put our air hammer on there. Make sure you wear hearing protection and eye protection.

All right, so that's loose. Took a little bit of effort, but I got it. Now you can slide the tool off. Just move it a little bit. There we go. You should be able to just spin it off like that. You might need the tool once in awhile or you could use a wrench that fits, 32 millimeter wrench. All right, now I'm just going to keep loosening this up. Be careful. You don't want the fan to fall. You don't want it to smash into the radiator, especially if you're going to reuse the radiator. If you're replacing it, it's not a big deal.

As I get closer to the end, I'll just move the fan and just grab the blade, and here we go. Now I can slide this right up, just like that. Just going to disconnect this connector to the mass airflow sensor. Push down on this tab, wiggle it out. Take a straight blade screwdriver, loosen up this clamp right here. Should be good. I can push that snorkel off right there, and then all these clips holding the top of the air box off, I'm just going to take the top off. This last one over here, that one's kind of tricky to get to. Pull the dipstick out of the way.

You just grab the air box, pull the air filter out. I'm going to take these two bolts out. I'm going to use a 10 millimeter socket, extension, and an electric ratchet. You can use a regular ratchet if you don't have an electric one or an air powered one. Loosen them up, take them out. Now we just grab the air box, slide it up. This wire is on it, this little grommet right here. Just try to slide that out. Just try to slide this off. All right, take that off, and you can just slide this out of the way.

I'm going to pull this fill cap off before we drain the coolant. Make sure the engine is cold. You don't want to take this off while the engine's hot or you're going to get splashed in the face with coolant. Pull that off, and now we can raise the vehicle and drain the coolant.

Underneath the vehicle, there may be a cover right here. You're going to have to remove it. There should be some fasteners there, there, there, and there, and then also back there. This vehicle doesn't have it, so we're just going start right here. I need to loosen up this drain right here. This radiator is not the original radiators, so I believe you're going to have a different size socket to use if you have the OEM radiator. For this one, it's a 22 millimeter socket. I'm going to use an extension and a ratchet. Loosen this up. Make sure you put a drain bucket underneath.

I'm just going to remove this. There we go. Look at that. That coolant looks nasty. To help the coolant drain out a little faster, I'm going to open this bleeder screw right here. Just use a straight blade screwdriver, loosen this up.

All right, now we want to remove this side from the radiator. I'm just going to take a straight blade screwdriver, slide up under this retaining clip right there, and then there's also one right here. Just like that. Now I can just grab this hose and just wiggle it a little bit. All right, pry that off. That's good.

Now we'll take the screwdriver and just take this hose off completely. Slide the clip out. Just wiggle this back and forth, pull it up. Now I'll take the screwdriver and just take this hose off completely. Slide the clip out, just wiggle this back and forth, Pull it up.

There's a screw right here. I'm going to use a T20 socket, extension, and a ratchet. Take that screw out. Now I can move the radiator out a little bit, and we're going to take this screw up. Now if you weren't taking this section of the radiator off and you were just doing the reservoir, you could loosen up the bolts on the headlight, move the headlight forward. Then you might be able to gain access to that screw right there. I'm going to use a T20 on this screw. Take this one out. Pull that screw out.

I'm going to pull this coolant hose off. Just use a straight blade screwdriver or a pick, just pull up on the retainer clip, and then just wiggle it off. There we go. Slide that out. A lot more coolant came out. Make sure you still have your drain bucket underneath there.

Now from underneath the vehicle, you don't necessarily have to be from underneath the vehicle, I just wanted to show you how this worked There's a little lever right here that you can actually grab from above the vehicle, and you just pull it towards the center of the vehicle just like that, and that releases the lock that holds that in.

Now that clip is released. Now we're just going to grab the tank and slide it up. The coolant sensor is still down there. We'll have to disconnect that, but I'm just going to grab the tank and just pry it straight up. Be careful. You don't want to rock it back and forth too much because you could break other plastic. Just pull it up, just like that. You're going to have some more coolant come out. Just slide it up. When you slide it up, I can disconnect the connector right here. Push down on the tab, pull it out like that. Disconnect this connector right here. Just push on that, slide it out. Make sure you have your drain bucket underneath, and I'm going to pop this hose off. Just use a pick, slide up on the lock, and grab the hose and try to wiggle it out. All right, just a little bit of coolant, not too much.

Now we're going to take this part of the hose off right here and just use a straight blade screwdriver or a pick. Pull the retainer out. You don't have to pop this off completely. It just happened to do that. Just grab it and wiggle it down. There we go. Slide it down and slide it out.

All right, we want to take this cooler off of this piece right here, so just slide up. There's a little lock right here. You don't have to pull it all the way off. You can just slide it up a little bit. Then you should be able to grab the cooler. Make sure you have a bucket underneath to catch any fluid that comes out, and that should slide out like that. There's no fluid coming out right now because we drained it earlier.

Next, there's a little thermostat right here. This one happens to be broken, but you don't want to grab that. They are pretty fragile, so be careful. They might break. This one just separated. There's normally a spring in there. There's a hose right here we need to disconnect. I'm just going to grab a pick, and underneath there's a little clip. You want to get underneath that clip. Just take a pick, get under the clip, slide it up just carefully. I'm just going to use a screw driver to get a little leverage to try to wiggle the hose back and forth.

There's a little like junction connection right here. Sometimes it's easier to take that off. This is all plastic, so you've got to be careful. A lot of times it's pretty brittle, so you're just going to have to replace some of the things that crack. Just going to take a pry bar very gently and just try to wiggle this off. There we go.

All right, so this bracket slides on like that, or this connection. There we go. Alright, so I'll slide this connection up here. Then you can grab it a little easier. Slide this off. There we go. Cut that piece off. If this cracks, you're going to have to replace that.

All right, there's a screw right here that I need to take out. It's a T25. Just use a T25 socket and a ratchet. All right, pull that screw out. With that bolt removed, you can take a screwdriver or something to pry with and just try to get underneath here and just pry it up. It is plastic, so be careful. This one actually broke. There's an O-ring right here and there's a piece that holds that O-ring in, and this piece broke. It's pretty fragile. If you're replacing the radiator, keep in mind you're probably going to need to replace this too. Take this out, just slide it up. Pull this out of the way. You can slide it out.

Here's the old part. Here's the new radiator overflow tank mounting plate from 1AAuto.com. As you can see, it's machined the same way, has the same poles. Flip it over on the back side, same position where it would go into the radiator. The old one is broken. These cracked. It's a common problem. Get yours at 1AAuto.com and you'll be ready to rock and roll.

On the backside of this, before I install this into the radiator, I am just going to take a little bit of white lithium grease, put it on the O-ring. You could lubricate this with some coolant. This is just personal preference. Just lubricate that. Then we're going to slide this down into position. It's going to slide on up here first. Get it lined up on the radiator and just wiggle it, lock it in place.

I'm going to install this screw right here. Take a T25, just tighten that down. Just snug it up. It is in plastic, so be careful. All right, I'm going to install this splitter right here. I can move the radiator out a little bit if I need to just to get this to line up. It just slides on. Then we'll hook the hoses up afterwards. Oops, it fell. There we go. It's in position. Put the radiator back.

I'm going to install this hose. You can check that O-ring, make sure that O-ring is good. Just put a little lubricant on that and then slide this in position right there. It is keywayed, so it only goes on one way. I'm going to lock it in place and that's good. Now I'm going to take this cooler, and you can check those O-rings on the cooler too. They look pretty good on this car, so we're just going to leave those. You can either lubricate them or there's a little coolant on ours, so they should be okay. Lock that in place right there.

I'm going to install this thermostat. This is just a thermostat for the coolant that goes through this cooler for the transmission cooler. I just put a little lubricant on there and this is keywayed as well. Just line that up, just like that, and just push it down. Just push it down. It should be good.

I'm going to take that coolant reservoir. We want to plug the coolant level sensor in before we push it all the way down. You might be able to reach it once it's all the way on there, but it's just easier to get it lined up just like that. Lock it in place, and then line the reservoir up. There's a little tab on the backside here. You want that lined up, and then lock it in place.

Take this hose, line this up, and lock it in place., just like that. Take this screw right here. It's just easier to put this on before I put the hose on. Get that started. You take a T25, extension, and a socket, tighten this down just snug. It is in plastic, so too careful.

Come take the hose, slide it in position. Just lock it in place on the lower radiator hose right there. It'll lock in place. Take a connector, line it up, lock that in place. We can take the upper portion of the hose and slide it over here, lock it in place.

All right, take this pipe, this upper hose, just line that up right there, lock it in place. Then over here, line this up over here and just wiggle it a little bit, lock that in place. Make sure this reservoir is locked in too. That's good.

These have to go on together. Just slide this in position. Once you get this close, I'm going to start to tighten up the fan. Now, these fan blades are ... The fan clutch is reverse thread, so it's almost like you're going to be loosening it. There's really no easy way to do this. Just do it carefully. Once you get it started it's a little bit easier. Make sure the fan shroud is in properly. That's good.

All right, if you have the ability to torque this nut for the fan, you're going to torque that between 22 and 29 foot-pounds. I don't really have that ability, so I'm just going to put this tool on there and just give it a little tap. That should be good. Right here, there's a push pin. That's going to go back in here. Slide that in position and lock it down.

On this side, we're going to put this screw right here. Then I'm going to use a T25 and a electric ratchet, tighten this up just snug. I'll position this wiring harness right here and we'll plug the connector in right here, lock that in place.

Now we're just going to slide this side of the lower air box in here. Yours may have something that this connects to. This vehicle doesn't. It just slides in position, and then this lower part slides there. Make sure these holes are lined up, take these two bolts, get these started. Take a 10 millimeter socket and a ratchet and tighten these down. I'm using an electric ratchet. If you don't have an electric ratchet, just use a manual one.

Take the air filter and install it. Now take the top part of the air box. I'm going to slide it onto the snorkel first, just like that, and then there's all these clips. Take these clips, lock this part down. Connect the mass air flow sensor or air flow meter. Slide this clamp right here. Take a straight blade screwdriver and tighten it down just snug, not too tight. Give it a shake, make sure it's good.

Take this piece, slide this into the air box, just like that, and there's retainers right here. Take those push pins and lock them down.

Then we can take the negative side, connect the negative side. Take the same 10 millimeter socket and ratchet, tighten it up. That's good. At this point, if you had that cover, you're going to want to put the cover back where it goes.

When adding the coolant, we're going to use a funnel, and you want to make sure you add the appropriate type of coolant. You can check your owner's manual. There is BMW specific coolant. Generally it's blue coolant. We're going to add, we're going to fill up the reservoir.

We're going to take this bleeder screw out. Just use a straight blade screwdriver or a Phillips head. Just move that funnel. You could probably just loosen this up a little bit or you can take it all the way out just like that, set it aside. You want to fill this all the way up to the top and have coolant come bubbling out of the bleeder hole. Once it's coming out of there, we're going to re-install the bleeder screw. It is plastic, so be careful. You don't want to strip this. Get this started again.

Then close that bleeder screw, and then you're going to adjust the level in here. Now there is a little dipstick in here. When this is full, this is going to be all the way at the top. Now you can check it right here. It shows where the min and the max is, so you want to adjust that accordingly. You can add coolant or take out coolant. You can use like a turkey baster or some type of fluid pump to suck the fluid out.

Then you want to let it run. You want to leave the heat on. When you leave the heat on, if you don't have heat, you're going to want to crack this open a little bit and just make sure you get some of the coolant out. It's probably a good idea to shut the engine off, let it cool down, and readjust your coolant.

When you're done, when the fluid level's at the appropriate level, take the cap, put it back on. Make sure you monitor your temp gauge while you're running the vehicle. If you run the vehicle for about 10 minutes, the temp gauge should go right in the middle of there. If it starts going to the red, shut the vehicle off and start over. Bleed the system again.

Thanks for watching. If you want the parts to do it yourself, check out 1AAuto.com, the place for DIY auto repair.