Anyone replace theirs?

It's the line that connects from the bottom of condenser to the evaporator core at the firewall.

I am trying to figure out how to get the old line out and route the new line in without damaging the new line. I have already removed the bumper & skirt, battery/tray and air box. I found that accessing both connection points is not the issue. Routing it is!

I'm wondering if I can remove the front radiator support core and feed the line right in from the front?

Another option may be removing just the transmission support bracket & fuse box. I'm not 100% sure it work this way.

Car is 2007 R52 convertible (Non turbo). Anyone who has done this please help.

Thank You

 

Yep, BTDT.

That's how I did mine - lifted driver-side of the engine, removed transmission-side engine mount, and threaded the line down in place from above and the front. I think I had to unbolt the fuse box to get access to all the engine mount bolts. Still had to thread the needle around different hardware obstacles to align it just right.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...40&hg=64&fg=60


HTH,
a

 

The diagram you linked to is for the turbo. My car is not a turbo. The line is different on mine. It has a pressure sensor where that one shows a line to the valve.

May still work this way ...but will require some finagling.

Questions:

When you removed the bracket from the mount, did you just use a floor jack with a block of wood (I have no tranny jack)?

Will my method work without messing up/jeopardizing my tranny in any way?

And, did you add refrigerant oil to the line? If so, how much? I found a measurement of 35ml per line replacement spec.

Thanks for your help!

 

Right.
Mine is an N14 (turbo), but the overall engine bay layout should be similar.
Your AC lines should look something like this:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...19&hg=64&fg=60

I have an engine hoist, so used driver-side engine bracket to lift it an inch as I removed tranny engine mount (driver side).
If you don't have a hoist, you could lift by the floor jack. Just make sure you spread the load well, and avoid lifting by the oil pan, if possible. The cast transmission housing looks very sturdy, while the aluminum oil pan didn't to me.

I did have to refill the AC system. R14 was premixed with oil in the can.
I kept adding refrigerant mixed with oil until the AC started blowing cold air. I recall measuring air vent output air temperature, but forgot what exactly it read (see Bentley). I also kept an eye on the max refrigerant pressures to make sure neither pre- nor post-compressor readings exceeded the maximums, and they didn't.

In a perfect world, you would want to pull vacuum on AC system, and replace dehydrator canister on the side of condenser. But it's expensive, and I figured I can experiment with $20-30 worth of R14 refill to see if that works. It did.

A year later, AC works fine.

a