Auxiliary Thermostat?

[DrinkCoffee]

Merry Christmas. I was always wondering what the part in the stock air box with the two coolant lines was. I looked it up on RealOEM and it says that it's a thermostat. What is the purpose of this thing, and can it affect running conditions? Thanks.

#11
http://realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/c/b/2.png

[Stephen Max]

It feeds coolant to the throttlebody. Why? Not sure, but maybe to prevent it from icing up in certain weather conditions.

[DrinkCoffee]

That makes sense, thanks bro

[ckpitt55]

#11 is an intake air temperature sensor

[DrinkCoffee]

This is an M50 by the way.

The air intake sensor on mine is on the back of the underside of the intake manifold.

I thought that this was a sensor initially, but there's no wires coming to it, and RealOEM lists it as "Thermostat."

[Yadeezi]

Does anyone have a pic of their engine bay that shows exactly where the Auxiliary Thermostat is located. I am having a hard time finding where it located on my 92 325i.

[flyfishvt]

Look for 2 coolant hoses going to the backside of the stock airbox. That's where its located. Contrary to what one of the guys on this thread said...#11 is not the air temp sensor. It is the throttlebody thermostat. It lets warm coolant flow to the throttle body to prevent icing.

if you don't have the stock airbox then it was most likely removed when they installed the after market intake. If you have a stock airbox but no hoses going to it then someone removed it for one of several reasons. In any case...unless its leaking...forget it. Its not controlled by anything except air temp and it doesn't affect anything to have it there.