What's a reasonable price for doing an antifreeze/coolant flush? My dealer wants to charge $150 for it. Can it be done easily by myself? Do I need any special tools? Or better yet, another in Toronto have some extra BMW coolant lying around who can spare me some?

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Do you still have warranty on your veh?If so,you better find a place that the warranty recognizes,or bite the bullet and take it to the stealer.

If you want to do a full flush, it uses a caustic solution to remove scaling from the cooling system. You can't do it yourself. $150 is about right for that.

If you want to just do a coolant drain and refill, you can do that yourself.

what's involved in doing one the right way? i flushed my celica's cooling system with a garden hose at the top of the rad, and the drain plug open. haha. ghetto!

You can buy a flush kit at any parts supplier (or CT for that matter). It's just a temporary fill with a "cleaning agent" to remove the guck etc. Then flush with clean water and refill appropriately with 50 / 50 BMW rad fluid / ionized water. Buy the fluid at the Saab dealer. Same stuff but cheaper.

Thanks for all, now I just found out that they need to replace the theromostat and it's not covered by the CPO warranty! The flush plus the theromostat will be just over $700! Stealer indeed. What should I do?

If it is out of warranty then either do it yourself (not complicated, at least on my vehicle) or find a good independant BMW mechanic. There shouls be a lot of decent shops in your area that will do your mechanical work for a lot less money. Damn dealers...

You can buy a flush kit at any parts supplier (or CT for that matter). It's just a temporary fill with a "cleaning agent" to remove the guck etc. Then flush with clean water and refill appropriately with 50 / 50 BMW rad fluid / ionized water. Buy the fluid at the Saab dealer. Same stuff but cheaper.

You mean de-ionized water?

You mean de-ionized water?

Ya,Ya...:stickoutt Pure H2O, I'm an engineer, not a chemist

Ya,Ya...:stickoutt Pure H2O, I'm an engineer, not a chemist

Haha nice. I'm an aspiring chemist, not an engineer.

For the both of you, it's distilled water. De-ionized does not mean distilled. You can get distilled at London Drugs (for example) for about $3/2 litres.

I'm a technologist :)

you : hey mr. stealership, i seem to have a slow leak on my right front tire.

stealthership : omg your muffler is gonna fall out, your engine is gonna blow ... $33,000 please , thanks , bye bye now...

you : ....




sorry i dont like the dealership one bit ... their prices and their attitude are the worst but thats just imo .. thanks ... my name is Terence and yes, i've been shafted.

For the both of you, it's distilled water. De-ionized does not mean distilled. You can get distilled at London Drugs (for example) for about $3/2 litres.

I'm a technologist :)

Distilled water is best but DI will work just fine and is better than tap water.

$550 to get the thermostat replaced???? OH man don't go to the stealer! you can do it yourself easily! A very few tools and about an hour (depends how mechanically inclined/declined you are).
If you can find your thermostat online for around $90 then you're doing ok. Make sure it's the complete kit with housing and seal etc...

http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techarticles/E36-thermostat/E36-thermostat.htm
Here's a pretty good DIY.
I did mine on my E46 and never removed any belts and didn't drain all the fluid. You'll obviously lose some from the top end of the system but if you have a clean ice cream pail underneath then you can save it and pour it back in when you're done. If you're going to get a rad flush from the dealer do the thermostat replacement first.

Stealership prices make me gag.

Well after complaining to my salesperson (he told me all the fluids would be replaced when I bought the car used last June), the dealer ended up eating the brake fluid flush and I ended up paying $545 with taxes for the thermostat change. The way I see it, $545 for new thermostat and brake fluid flush is probably $100-150 over what I could have paid an independent guy but at least it was not $145 + 545 for the two jobs!

$545 for a thermostat change :eek: Now i remember why i take my cars to an indepedent BMW garage for service or do it myself. BTW i just changed the thermostat on my M3 myself, cost about $50 with coolant and distilled water. Took less than an hour.

It sure pays to do the work yourself. $90 for the thermostat and housing and a few bucks for some coolant = done. Saved myself about $450 and got the satisfaction of doing it myself.
That Bentley manual is worth it's weight in gold.

I loves my new thermostat :) Made me all warm this winter. Old was was opening at ~20 degrees.

It sure pays to do the work yourself. $90 for the thermostat and housing and a few bucks for some coolant = done. Saved myself about $450 and got the satisfaction of doing it myself.
That Bentley manual is worth it's weight in gold.

Unfortunately there is no repair manual available for the E60...

A few options on eBay.co.uk for the E60. Maybe not as good as a Bentley manual but better than nothing and too cheap to say no too.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-5-SERIES-E60-SERVICE-REPAIR-MANUAL_W0QQitemZ350045841768QQihZ022QQcategoryZ184 09QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-5-SERIES-E34-E39-E60-E61-TECHNICAL-WORKSHOP-MANUAL_W0QQitemZ150233467285QQihZ005QQcategoryZ184 09QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-5-SERIES-E60-E61WORKSHOP-MANUAL-2007-NEW_W0QQitemZ160226800094QQihZ006QQcategoryZ18409Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-E53-E60-E61-E63-E64-E31-E52-WORKSHOP-SERVICE-MANUAL_W0QQitemZ360039050257QQihZ023QQcategoryZ184 09QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem