Turn the Blue Plug dummy!

[Artesian]

First post. Love the info I have found here and thought I would share a lesson I learned today.

I picked up a 09 Alpine White 135i last month. My previous Bavarian toy was a 98 M roadster. Wow! What an upgrade. The previous owner put lots of nice mods in this car. It outperforms the roadster in all aspects.

I was always very OCD about the maintenance on my old car so of course I am the same with the new ride. Today I undertook the "simple" task of changing the coolant. The old stuff had turned clear so it seemed like time to get 'er done.

Got all the supplies and took out the FMIC. I didn't have a screwdriver big enough to turn the cross in the middle of the plug so I thought "I wonder if I can pull it out with the 19mm hex". Of course, the answer was no. Unfortunately, the lock tabs on the hex plug sheared off and a leak appeared.

After the appropriate amount of cursing the German who designed a fragile plastic part with a 19mm hex on it, I drained the system, buttoned everything up again and tested to see if it would leak by adding 2 quarts of new coolant. Sure enough, it did.

I went to the dealer and bought a new "Control Sleeve" for $10 (Picture attached). Oddly enough, they don't sell the blue plastic plug by itself but a new one comes with the sleeve. Came home, drained the system until I saw blue then switched to a clean drain pan. I wasn't going to throw out the new coolant! Aligned the lock tabs on the old one with the 2X slots in the bottom of the radiator and yanked it out with needle nose pliers. The new one popped right in. After about 30 degrees of rotation I heard the click I was hoping for.

Refilled the system using about 10 seconds of pedal to get the water pump working. Didn't need to bleed the system while running the pump. No leaks so I put everything back together and fired it up. I was watching the coolant temp rise on my OBD reader. When it got to around 175 I checked the top radiator hose and it was already starting the warm up. All was good. Still no leaks!!

Today's lesson is the title of the post- Turn the Blue Plug Dummy!

These 1ers are so high tech one small error and you are running to the dealer for parts...

Artesian

Also had some interesting fuel system issues that seem to have disappeared with some new plugs. I'll save that for another post.

[1911A145]

Did you only drain the radiator? Or did you manage to do a "complete" engine drain and fill?

[Artesian]

With the adventure on the radiator I figured that was enough for one project!