InsaneJournal

Okay, so next time I'll try scratching and grunting...
In our last episode, the brave little car had just received another brand new radiator, to replace the one that had been installed in March, but went ka-blooie in early September.



So, Monday evening (10/15), I went out to pick up some dinner and was waiting in the drive-through line, when I looked down to the dash and was suddenly alarmed to see the engine temp edging over into the red. Oh, dear. I only had time to switch on the heater and turn the fan on high when the car shook and an all-too-familiar-by-now FWOOSH! of steam came out from under the hood.

I managed to get the car over into a parking spot, and called the garage that replaced the radiator last time. They were closed, of course - by about 10 minutes. :-P There was no point in having the car towed to a closed shop, so I hoofed it about half a mile to the bus stop and rode home, then took the reverse trip Tuesday morning, called AAA and had the car towed back to the shop.

Oh, they were just delighted to see me (not). I explained that the brand new radiator they'd installed in early September was apparently kaput, and they needed to do something about it. So they apologized, got me a rental car (on their dime), and sent me off to work.

No one called all day. I finally called them around 4pm to ask WTF, and was told that they would have to replace the radiator, but hadn't been able to get to it, and would call me the next day. Okay...

Wednesday morning, the service manager called and told me that there must be some underlying reason why the radiators keep going out, and that they'd have to get their master technician to pressure-test the engine, and he wasn't going to be in until Thursday...

Thursday, I called in the afternoon and was told the master technician had had four other cars to deal with ahead of ours, and he probably wouldn't get to it until the next day...

Friday, the service manager called me just after noon and said they had replaced the radiator and pressure-tested the system, and they were "unable to determine" whether the head gasket was leaking or not, but "based on the car's age and mileage, the gasket's probably worn and leaking." Er. Okay, and? "Well, you're certainly welcome to take it to the dealer and have them test it - they may be able to find a leak we couldn't locate.

Lovely.

In the meantime, odogoddess had dug up a repair shop that had been recc'd to her for BMW repairs as being honest and affordable. So I called and talked to the guy, explaining the Saga of the Three Radiators, and the first thing he asked was whether they had installed a metal radiator. Er...maybe? Well, that could be the problem as apparently BMW's require plastic radiators. Anyway, he quoted me a price for replacing the radiator - much less than the first shop charged the first time - and said he could pressure test the head and test the block for cracks, for free. So I told him I'd bring it in in the morning, drove the rental car back to the first shop, turned it over to them for returning to the rental people, picked up our poor little car and drove it back home without incident.

This morning I took it to the new shop - tiny little place I almost missed, but they had a decent-looking garage, clean as one would expect any working garage to be, with opera playing in the background, and a very polite man who remembered my call right away. He went out and looked at the car and said, "Well, they put the right radiator in, although it's an after-market radiator, not a BMW radiator." He frowned and looked closer at one of the clips that holds the radiator to the front of the frame - and the top of it came away in his hand. There was a cable-tie under it. He shook his head. "Both of these clamps are broken. You can see they tried to tie it down. Why didn't they just replace it?" He poked and prodded a bit, then we went in and filled out paperwork, and he called a different branch of the same car rental folks to have them come pick me up. He said he'd run the tests and let me know. So I got the rental car, picked up lunch and came home.

The garage called a couple hours ago, with "good news and bad news." He hadn't been able to pressure-test the engine yet, but he did find a leak. Oh? Yes, in the "brand new" radiator they "replaced" last night. It's cracked. His opinion was that they just filled it up, possibly "pressure tested" it, with understandably indeterminate results, then didn't bother replacing it, just sent me home.

ARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!!

As I was saying to my stepfather when I called to update Mama on this, why the hell can't mechanics just be honest???

He gave a rueful laugh and said that auto mechanics are just traditionally dishonest, and worse when dealing with women.

Fine. Dammit, next time I'll recruit one of the guys from work - preferably the largest, roughest looking one I can convince to come with me, then have him stand there and grunt while I talk to the mechanic! He may also be required to scratch himself in the appropriate places and possibly hawk and spit from time to time. Maybe that will get a better result.

odogoddess says she's willing to butch up and come with me next time, but I'm not sure that'll have the desired result...*leers*

Anyway, I told the new guy to go ahead and replace the radiator, then pressure test and block test the engine and let me know. He's also going to check the thermostat, fan and water pump. I hope he is as honest as he claims to be. At the moment, I'm afraid my faith is a bit strained. :-/

Most likely, we won't get the car back until Monday. Oh, well. At least we have a nice little rental to tootle around in, for the time being.

Keep your fingers crossed that it's only the radiator that needs replacing!