Engine radiator OEM Volkswagen or OEM BMW

Replaced with original.

24 years is good for me.

The stock piece lasts well over a decade in my experience. That's more than enough for me for a part that fits and functions perfectly.

I used a like new radiator I had from my 16v post going aluminum rad and fans on that car. so new fan, cleaned up the wiring and put a better looking relay in and tested it.

OEM radiator. Replaced radiator on visit 5 (today). Bmw closed loop network is what eventually led to the radiator being checked as they’ve seen aftermarket radiators actually cool the cars too much, therefore sending the tstat fault in cold weather (this issue occurred first last winter for me, then again 5 times this winter.. all same fault code). Confidence that this is the root cause fix seems to be high so fingers crossed I won’t be updating this in a few days.

I have a 2008 e90 335xi FBO with 197k miles and I am still on my original BMW radiator. If the stock original BMW stamped one works well... why experiment?

N54 335i - 200k miles radiator upgraded

The radiator on my 2016 is leaking, although leak isn't really the right word. Maybe porous. The hole is so small, it takes months to show a change in the coolant reservoir. On some days, given proper conditions, a small wisp of steam is visible coming from the radiator area. I added a UV dye to the cooling system, and it is visible then.

bmw makes a sad excuse of a cooling system with brittle plastic, sad plastic joins and a pathetic plastic and metal radiator, like that's gonna last

During Covid a lot of brand new genuine BMW parts had some issues so I had to change my radiator twice, was covered by BMW dealer after loads of back and forth. (There’s two part numbers for B48 engine main radiators and the dealer said the part number used was not meant for the car but the other radiator clearly wouldn’t fit)

Be careful with the early MK8s. Mine is a 2022 and boy howdy she's got issues. Shift knob broke, steering wheel capacitor issues that disable travel assist repeatedly, backup camera failure and others say they have issues with the radiator failing to be fully seated on its clips and causing big problems.