E46 318i 2002 want a fully alloy radiator. Anyone know of one that fits?

[mickqld]

Hi everyone,

so I have searched for posts about radiators for a 318i with a 2.0lt N42 engine without much luck, but it could be my bad search skills.

Anyway, I am asking if anyone has upgraded their later e46 318i with a fully alloy aluminium aluminum radiator? Did you have to modify one or did you find one that fit out of the box?

I am open to suggestions. Right now I have searched the interwebs and am not having a lot of luck. I can find radiators for earlier models, that's easy. I can find radiators for 323i models (eg mishimoto) easy, but I cannot find if they will fit / work with the 4 cylinder engine.

So, open to any suggestions on all alloy rads.

Cheers, Mick

E46 318i 2002 2.0Lt 4 cyl N42 build date 2001-11-07

[MarcoZandrini]

The first thing I’d do is go to www.realoem.com and enter the last 7 characters of the car’s vehicle identification number. Hit enter and bookmark the page. Scroll down to radiator to get the part # for the radiator. Then click on the part # (it’s a link) to see what other BMWs use the same radiator. That’ll help you determine if the alloy radiator for a different car will fit your car.

Out of curiosity, why do you want an alloy radiator? Yes, the factory radiator has a lot of plastic, but Nissens is a great radiator. Nissens supplies radiators to BMW.

[jclausen]

Replace the radiator, expansion tank and mounting plate and hard wear(only factory bmw on the tank and plate) the plastic radiator will last a long time

[mickqld]

Thanks for the advice guys. I have the BMW part number already, so will see what I can find that way.
I wanted an all alloy radiator, because they are better, and frankly, that's what BMW should use in all their vehicles anyway. plastic is cheap and it fails. that's just a fact.
Cheers Mick

[MarcoZandrini]

Car manufacturers use plastic because it’s lighter and cheaper then metal. I agree that plastic radiators aren’t as longer lived as metal radiators, but the consensus here and on other bimmer forums is that the cooling system needs to be overhauled every 100k miles. When I overhauled the cooling system of my previous 2 bimmers at 100k miles I replaced the radiator.

[mickqld]

Hi, well, I found the PN for my model and then backtracked that BMW Radiator PN 17107544367 to find models it was used in. I found a list in the bmwautoparts.net pages.

It seems that this particular radiator, for my 2002 e46 318i N42 Type Code AZ72 with Manual Trans & options S823 & S534, fits just about every e46... seriously, it was a long list of bimmers. 170 different models to be exact, right from the 316ci N40 to the 330xi M54.
So, given that info, I cannot see why a radiator that suits one the models on that long list wouldn't fit my bimmer. I am willing to try on a cheaper all alloy radiator to see if it fits.

Ill let you know how it goes.
Cheers, Mick

[MarcoZandrini]

Great sleuthing.