Time for a cooling system refresh - OEM radiator still the way to go?

[bavarian3]

To close on this I ended up fitting the NRF unit. I had to add rubber washer/spacers between the upper driver side radiator and bracket/chassis side mount hole. Others seem to not have had this issue, but I fought it for hours, even dremeled different spots to try and buy more space and swear it wouldn't line up otherwise.

One more thing about the NRF, the fins are laughably softer than genuine so be careful.

If I could go back I would just have ordered the genuine.

We need to make an official sticky thread with which parts on these cars that need to be Original BMW and what you can use Rein/Febi/etc for. I’ve heard from a couple people that these rad hoses are a must be Original situation.

Yeah so about the hose, I ended up trimming mine. Apparently with the rein hoses the o-rings suck too. I changed mine with the Viton kit sold on here.

The lower rad hose fit fine fwiw.