OK my fav cousin einstien I too came to that conclusion.... aside from that fact I was looking for more of a technical answer. I've never had a car (out of 8+ in my lifetime) that had such a setup! I was just wondering WHY?
It's actually rather beneficial and important. There are a few posts where people removed it and alternator died in high demand cars. I know the Technik ASA supercharged cars because of piping left this off. Several owners noticed their alternators died soon after. So a reroute and ducting of cool air back as originally designed by BMW was done.
It's often not noticed how important some designs are until when removed the difference they make.
It's important mine died cause it was missing. And plus why do you think there are water cooled alternators? High demand means high temps, high temps mean shortened life span, so keep it cool and lengthen life span.
I guess its there to improve access to cool air flow? However the word "cool" has to be taken in the context of ambient temperature. If you lived near the North Pole you would probably be looking to block up every orifice to keep the heat in. Well, to a certain extent. At the equator the opposite. So its difficult to say really.
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