This really saved me some bucks. As you can tell both top and bottom hoses are pretty simple to replace. However would suggest get the original BMW equipment, it has the ridges inside and the quality is also much better than the aftermarket stuff.
Good luck,

Alex

Bill, I took my car to a mechanic today, strictly independant, because Ive had somewhat of a coolant leak since I bought the car. When I originally bought it, the check coolant light was on and when I checked it, it was probably at the lowest point possible in the expansion tank. Well I accidentally filled it to the cap, as I couldnt see the cold start line without taking off a hose. Anyway, the coolant light went off after I filled it. 2 days later,I chcked the level and it was under the cold start line by a little, maybe a notch. I assume that since I overfilled it and coolant rises when hot, that excess ran out the excess tube. Anyway, the level drops a little whenever the car is ran. I drove about 600 miles total after I bought the car, but its been parked for the winter the last 3 weeks, and Ive only ran the engine, not driven it. I have noticed it still dropping alittle though. There are no leaks on the ground. Anyway, the mechanic was gonna test the antifreeze for carbon monoxide but he could not becasue the system is pressurized. He pulled the spark plugs and they all look fine. I have no other symptoms of head gasket problems. There is some smoke that comes from the tailpipe but I think its due to carb cleaner I cleaned ICV with and I havent had time to drive the car to get it out of the system. He said if i had a gasket leak, it was so small that it could not cause that smoke. What do you think.....do you think it might be a hose somewhere near the engine that may be dissolving the coolant before it hits the ground? Or even a leaky hose? The guy says to just keep driving it.

I guess my theory is that if the coolant loss was due to a head gasket problem, that there would be at least some eveidence of antifreeze on the plugs. Reason is, even if its small, that would continue to clean the sparkplug no matter what, so the plug would be clean after a period of time.