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Comment by buffet_overflow | Hacker News Reader

Reminds me a bit of BMWs and their infamous and persistent coolant pump woes. The running joke in those circles is "replacing the entire cooling system" counts as "basic, regular maintenance". BMW makes a fantastic engine, then makes the water pump impeller out of plastic. For what feels like decades.

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My E39 (which is a beacon of reliability for the brand) had a radiator neck made of a kind of plastic that becomes brittle with prolonged exposure to heat. It's a good thing there's no heat associated with the radiator. "Replace the entire radiator" was a ~70k mile maintenance task.

E39 beacon of reliability, is this sarcasm? I really can't tell

It's not, actually - the E39s are incredibly reliable compared to more recent models. I drove mine for 20 years.

That said, it's the difference between "fairly unreliable" and "spectacularly unreliable".

I miss mine enough I’ve been debating on buying another.

A 530i Sport with a manual (!!!) popped up near me for a song but I just can’t justify it.

Yup, mine blew apart in traffic on H1 (Oahu) at 35MPH when the car (530i) was ~3 years old. I think it had maybe 35k miles on it.

Dealer offered to allow me to pay extra for an all aluminum since that’s what they recommended but the factory wouldn’t cover.

I have the B58 which is fantastic and does come with an all metal, mechanical water pump which I thought would be a pleasant break, but my gasket still failed. BMW and water pumps, classic.

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