E70 X5M S63 Coolant Flush

[ncmoore12]

Hey yall,

Has anyone done a coolant flush or replacement on their X5M's s63? I removed my passenger intercooler to replace the vacuum lines leading to the boost solenoid. Figured i should just replace the coolant since its been a while anyways. Do we really have to remove all the plastic under covers to access the passenger side lower radiator hose connector and disconnect that? Or is that really how you flush it? also how much coolant do we replace and I assume we fill the expansion tank first, then run the car till the pump turns on to pull coolant to different places and then fill again?

This might be the best I found but for an M5. Is it even worth it? Should I just fill it up and run and fill it up to make up for the coolant I lost removing the intercooler?
https://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1708203

TiA!

[Sophisticated Redneck]

Originally Posted by ncmoore12

Hey yall,

Has anyone done a coolant flush or replacement on their X5M's s63? I removed my passenger intercooler to replace the vacuum lines leading to the boost solenoid. Figured i should just replace the coolant since its been a while anyways. Do we really have to remove all the plastic under covers to access the passenger side lower radiator hose connector and disconnect that? Or is that really how you flush it? also how much coolant do we replace and I assume we fill the expansion tank first, then run the car till the pump turns on to pull coolant to different places and then fill again?

This might be the best I found but for an M5. Is it even worth it? Should I just fill it up and run and fill it up to make up for the coolant I lost removing the intercooler?
https://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1708203

TiA!

That is the only way to get 100 percent of the intercooler coolant out. You can get roughly 80 percent out if you disconnect the lower tube on the passenger side that runs to the water pump in front of the engine radiator. Requires pulling the fan though.

Do a search for the fill and bleed procedure, if memory serves you fill the Intercooler reservoir past the full mark to the very top, then activate the bleed procedure (something odd like put heat to full temp but fan low, hold throttle while engine off, do a search you will find it). Takes about 10min and will suck the coolant down, when it goes down fill it up to the full mark. Hook up a charger whiles it's running.

[pdX5M]

Originally Posted by Sophisticated Redneck

That is the only way to get 100 percent of the intercooler coolant out. You can get roughly 80 percent out if you disconnect the lower tube on the passenger side that runs to the water pump in front of the engine radiator. Requires pulling the fan though.

Do a search for the fill and bleed procedure, if memory serves you fill the Intercooler reservoir past the full mark to the very top, then activate the bleed procedure (something odd like put heat to full temp but fan low, hold throttle while engine off, do a search you will find it). Takes about 10min and will suck the coolant down, when it goes down fill it up to the full mark. Hook up a charger whiles it's running.

Yup that's the bleed procedure - just had to do it when I replaced my expansion tank.

It's ignition on, both temp dials set to max, fan on low, and hold the accelerator pedal to the floor for 10ish seconds. You will hear the electric water pump turn on and should hear fluid moving through the system. I had a battery charger hooked up because each bleed cycle lasts about 10 minutes and places a decent draw on the battery.

[pearlpower]

I never was able to get the so-called bleed procedure to work, not once. Instead, I fill up the reservoir, heat up the motor, turn on heaters to circulate through the heater core, and then use an allen on the two top screws until the coolant coming out is a steady stream. I place a towel in there to catch the excess, and be careful as the coolant is hot, but so little comes out. No need to unscrew them all the way, just a little.

[Sophisticated Redneck]

Originally Posted by pearlpower

I never was able to get the so-called bleed procedure to work, not once. Instead, I fill up the reservoir, heat up the motor, turn on heaters to circulate through the heater core, and then use an allen on the two top screws until the coolant coming out is a steady stream. I place a towel in there to catch the excess, and be careful as the coolant is hot, but so little comes out. No need to unscrew them all the way, just a little.

I believe this bleed procedure only effects the intercooler coolant system, even though BMW could have done something similar with the engine coolant system since there are two electric water pumps in it too.

For the main coolant system, I used the vacuum coolant fill kit from FCP euro. Worked amazing, put in the exact amount not coolant and didn't need to bleed. You have to completely drain the system to use though.

When doing light work that only drains some of the coolant like working on the turbos, what I like to do is for the last step to poor coolant down the two small coolant tubes that feed the turbos, then connect very quickly. This is especially handy for n63 owners as BMW did not include bleed screws on the coolant connection T's for the n63. As far as I know, they did away with it on later years of the s63 and the TU variants and only the original S63 has them so your lucky.

[bluefish7]

Can y'all let me know if I've messed up my coolant system? I was moving intake manifold off and dropped out all the coolant by accident from one of the houses. Got everything back together and just filled up through the resevoir, then noticed a day or two later that it was way down again, added more. Now I'm finding out that my 2009 X5 35d is running cold (140F on highway) and hot at idle (206F). Did I create an air pocket by refilling coolant on a cold engine through the res, or ruin my pump/tstat? Or coincidence that I did this and really I just have a bad pump/tstat? Thanks for any advice, it sounds like from this post that I shouldnt have just added coolant back and assumed it was all good.

Originally Posted by Sophisticated Redneck

I believe this bleed procedure only effects the intercooler coolant system, even though BMW could have done something similar with the engine coolant system since there are two electric water pumps in it too.

For the main coolant system, I used the vacuum coolant fill kit from FCP euro. Worked amazing, put in the exact amount not coolant and didn't need to bleed. You have to completely drain the system to use though.

When doing light work that only drains some of the coolant like working on the turbos, what I like to do is for the last step to poor coolant down the two small coolant tubes that feed the turbos, then connect very quickly. This is especially handy for n63 owners as BMW did not include bleed screws on the coolant connection T's for the n63. As far as I know, they did away with it on later years of the s63 and the TU variants and only the original S63 has them so your lucky.