Which AC Condenser to go with (64538377614)

[MarcoPolo]

Hi All. in the process of doing a cooling refresh. while it's mostly a track car, i still take it out on the street so i have no intention of removing the AC system.
i've searched through various pages and while people have replaced their AC Condenser, no ones mentioned what they went with.

The 3 popular brands seems to be Behr-Mahle, Nissens, and OE BMW.

What's confusing is there seems to be a general negative feeling towards Nissens while most approve of Behr-Mahle. Price-wise, Behr-Mahle is the most affordable with Nissens being more expensive and BMW OE being the most expensive.

Google search led me to a single post on e46fanatics where multiple behr models were bent improperly. (source: https://www.e46fanatics.com/threads/...77614.1234374/)

the claim was that behr uses aluminum piping while nissens used steel piping.

with all above being said, i'm curious what general feedback or if anyone has been using one over the other over the years w/no issues.

why am i replacing the condenser? 180k miles, doing a refresh, so doing that at the same time as a new radiator (koyo) and electric fan conversion.

Thank you.

[STAATS]

The Nissens didn't have a locating pin for the pipe mount so I messed up 2 seals and lost 2 AC refills out of it u til I sent it back and got an OE. Pipe fit first time, no refrig leaks... Could it have been user error? Sure. In general I have no problems with Nissens, I have their condenser but yer couldn't get the compressor to seal right to work.

[uberchris]

Good call on replacing the condenser on your next cooling refresh. I omitted this and tried to clean mine but it was so crusty that a bunch of the fins just fell off; especially in the area around the fan motor. I'm guessing a portion of my overheating problem on track was due to the grimy old condenser.

I ordered the Nissens and was very happy with it. I also noticed that it didn't have a locating pin, but it wasn't a problem for me. Fitment was perfect, and it took a charge and works as well as the original part ever did.

[nahvkolaj]

I had 3 condenser exchanges on my E53 before I finally got a good enough one when replacing the system in my E53. 1 Nissens and 2 Mahle-Behrs. OE wasn't available from FCP

[mpower22]

Remember, a lot of these companies are OE for BMW, so BMW just puts their stamp on it and the markup you're paying are the licensing fees, so if those are the only 2 that make condensers, it's likely that one of those 2 is the OE supplier for the BMW factory part. That said, I would go with which ever one is closest to stock. Also be aware that BMW may have updated the part number more recently than the 20 year old unit in these cars, so it might not be an exact visual match also (like switching from aluminum to steel lines, as an example).

[D-O]

I installed the Mahle/Behr unit from FCPEuro when I updated my cooling system. It works perfectly and I recall no fitment issues.