I used to be a big poster back in the early 2000s and i'm looking to get back into it. I have had the same 77 530i since 2001 and now that I am in my late 30s, I SHOULD have more money to work on this poor thing which has been sitting for the last 13 years unused. Anyway after dumping old gas and replacing the garbage iridium spark plugs with decent copper ones the old girl started right up. Anyways, the intake bellows attached to the AFM and TB is completely wasted. I do have a replacement, but its in a box a few hundred miles away and im not going to be able to get it for quite a while and I dont really want to buy the $80 one on Amazon. Have any of you guys used anything else as a replacement(temporarily)? Rubber pipe coupling or bellows from another car that fit?
Hey Dan, welcome back, your name vaguely rings a bell.
Best I can find at various places in the US is around $53, plus shipping, or ~$38 plus shipping from Europe. Which is probably your best bet, I didn't run the shipping numbers, but they've been pretty reasonable in my experience. I once bought a pair of E brake cables from them, for an E12, they were a dollar or two more than the cheapest US supplier I found, but weeks sooner.
If the bellows tube has any structural integrity, you may be able to repair it. I'm working on a drainage project in my yard, and 4-inch flexible drainage pipe is corrugated. Maybe this can keep things sealed well enough until you get your NOS bellows?
If you need structural integrity, you might be able to use some stiff wire like a dry-cleaning coat hanger running down the length of the tube and sandwiched between the tape and the hose. It definitely won't be pretty, but with neat, consistent wrapping it might be OK for a temporary fix.
to work on this poor thing which has been sitting for the last 13 years unused. Anyway after dumping old gas and replacing the garbage iridium spark plugs with decent copper ones the old girl started right up. Anyways, the intake bellows attached to the AFM and TB is completely wasted. I do have a replacement, but its in a box a few hundred miles away and im not going to be able to get it for quite a while and I dont really want to buy the $80 one on Amazon. Have any of you guys used anything else as a replacement(temporarily)? Rubber pipe coupling or bellows from another car that fit?
