Dealership broke my car

[bivenator]

I have a 2007 BMW 328. I got a recall notice for a wiring harness and a heater blower issue. So I schedule my turn and wait dutifully for the car to be repaired. It has no major issues when I brought the car in for the recall repair. No lights on the dash, all systems are go.
After completion of the recall repairs on the way home, after about 3 miles, the car overheats. It pukes out all the coolant when the radiator hose lets go sending a very impressive plume of steam. After leaving the dealer lot with the car it wasn't acting right. Turn signal indicating a light out, hard shift a few times, no AC.
I am waiting on a call from the dealer this morning to see what they have to say.
Ain't that a beach.

[masraum]

wow, I'd be raising hell, but it's pretty hard to do much to prove there was no issue before. And assuming it's not under warranty, that probably makes it even worse.

[jhynesrockmtn]

A few years back I took my 1993 Honda VFR to a relatively new motorcycle shop in town that a friend recommended. I was new to town as well. The story gets long and involved but to try and keep it short, they tipped the bike over while in their shop. It was close to winter so they suggested they repair all of the damage if I paid to get the bike painted (it needed paint anyway and had some previous damage). After months of back and forth with slow progress, I go to visit and the place is closed down. He went out of business. Luckily I got a hold of the building owner and found out when he was reopening to liquidate inventory. I go to get my bike and it was mostly put together. He tries to charge me for a service he had agreed to do for no charge. I refuse and basically take my bike. After all of this I get the bike home. He or his mechanic had taken most of the light bulbs out of the bike, taken out the stator and R&R and put non working units back in (I had previously upgraded both with aftermarket units). I finally have the bike up and running again after 4 years.

Good luck, sounds like you may have a fight ahead of you.

[bivenator]

Dealership left me a message. Mr bivenator, you had a small oil leak that softened the hose to radiator connection and that is the reason for the failure of the hose.


The hose didn't fail until after the overheating and then only after sitting with the engine off did the hose let go. I haven't seen the car but this seems pretty fishy. The car was showing other signs of problems when I left the lot that were not there before the "repair".

Ugly fight ahead.

[Sooner or later]

Good luck.

[MBAtarga]

Did the heater blower repair require coolant to be drained and refilled? Improper or incomplete bleeding could have cause the overheating issue.


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[RKDinOKC]

Took a new Jeep Cherokee in for a recall. It "fell off the lift!" They fixed everything, but sheesh. How does a vehicle fall off a lift?

[bivenator]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

Did the heater blower repair require coolant to be drained and refilled? Improper or incomplete bleeding could have cause the overheating issue.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Most likely, the heater was removed to replace the PCV valve heater.

The hose did not come loose from the radiatior neck until well after the car sat with the ignition off. THis would indicate a still pressurized system and cast shade of the assertion by the dealer that the hose failed.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

Took a new Jeep Cherokee in for a recall. It "fell off the lift!" They fixed everything, but sheesh. How does a vehicle fall off a lift?

Lots of pics on the 'Net of that. I wouldn't say it happens frequently, but I is not as uncommon as you'd think. I've also known folks that have seen it in person.

[LeeH]

Yeah... Mazda said they needed a mechanic to keep my car, as in use it as his personal vehicle, for a couple of days to check out an intermittent radio issue. First thing I noticed when I got it back was that the rear arm rest was down. Hmm. Then the very next time I took it on the highway and touched the brakes my steering wheel had a shimmy despite low miles and lots of pad left. Figure the guy must have tested out my ABS a few times, which would explain the rear armrest being down. I didn't bother going to the dealer. Figured it would go nowhere... no real evidence.

[MysticLlama]

Something similar recently happened to my BMW after the same two recalls.

I added in an oil change. Now there is a nice dent from the *underside* of the hood, and cracked the paint on top.

Went round and round with the dealer, they said it's been there over a year due to some chicken scratch on an intake damage form from a previous visit, even though they've admitted they didn't write it down this time and lost the form since then as well.

They eventually offered to cover half, which I didn't take them up on. It's either ending up as insurance and they can deal with it, or I'll pay it myself and drop it into small claims.

So frustrating on a minor issue at a luxury dealership. Hope yours goes a lot easier.

[gordner]

I took a jet into a service center that shall remain nameless for a repair after a tire blew out and messed up a flap and other parts. They do an incoming walk around video, and an incoming inspection. Month after it gets there, day before departure, they inform me I need two new nose gear doors due to "pre-existing " damage.
somehow, it turns out, they misplaced the incoming video inspection. Somehow, they did not note the two 4 inch creases in the nose doors on their incoming inspection.
Somehow to get my aircraft back I paid close to 100K for the door replacement.

[RedBaron]

The PCV Valve heater is actually under the intake manifold on an N52 engine. The O2 Sensor fuse on my parents E60 kept blowing (and it had enough miles on it to make me believe that it could be a bad O2 sensor heater, so I replaced all four O2 sensors and it kept having issues.) I finally looked at the wiring diagram and that heater valve is on the circuit. The dealer did the recall, but they wouldnt change the fuse because they claimed that wasn't the issue.

I changed the fuse after the recall and I haven't had an issue since. If they changed that PCV valve, they were playing around in your engine bay and could have buggered something up.

[pwd72s]

Geeze...28,800 miles on an '09 Mustang...Routine service, one set of tires. Both air bags replaced on a recall. All service & recall dealership done. Zero, I mean ZERO problems. Oh..almost forgot...damn wiper blades needed replacing after 7 years. I went with motocraft replacements.

Fords may be no status and all...but I can live without the "excitement" of status cars...

[RedBaron]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Geeze...28,800 miles on an '09 Mustang...Routine service, one set of tires. Both air bags replaced on a recall. All service & recall dealership done. Zero, I mean ZERO problems. Oh..almost forgot...damn wiper blades needed replacing after 7 years. I went with motocraft replacements.

Fords may be no status and all...but I can live without the "excitement" of status cars...

I have a feeling his "status car" had a lot more miles than your mustang - it probably has more heat cycles, more fatigue, etc.

[fastfredracing]

BMW. a sea of plastic bits that are old and brittle, and leaning on, moving, or even looking at some of it, makes it break or fail. If it does not happen on a test drive by the tech, there is no way he could know. I've had it happen. Just resting your elbow on one of those heater hoses, that have the plastic ends, is enough to fatigue it to the point of failure .
I guess this could be said for any modern vehicle. As long as they take care of it, be happy. **** happens, it is tough these days.
Many times, after service, things that I did even touch, or look at act up.
Is the recall for the blower motor final stage, and harness?

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by LeeH

Yeah... Mazda said they needed a mechanic to keep my car, as in use it as his personal vehicle, for a couple of days to check out an intermittent radio issue. First thing I noticed when I got it back was that the rear arm rest was down. Hmm. Then the very next time I took it on the highway and touched the brakes my steering wheel had a shimmy despite low miles and lots of pad left. Figure the guy must have tested out my ABS a few times, which would explain the rear armrest being down. I didn't bother going to the dealer. Figured it would go nowhere... no real evidence.

When I had my 87 RX7 I took it to a father / son indy shop to get an alignment. I had my specs printed out on paper and left on the seat of the car. They received instructions to align to my specs.

I also told them no joy rides and no road testing, just do the alignment. I went a step further and told them it needs to be fully warmed up before turning off and again, no drives it is a twitchy car that will get away from them.

I failed to mention it is also equipped with a Motec M4 with data logging. I can download over 30 minutes of the engine history to my laptop and see what is going on. Ooops!!

I come get the car, and the son made a comment to me as I was leaving, that is a hell of a car you have there.

As I was driving 5 minutes home I made the decision to hook up my laptop and see what prompted this comment from the son.

Someone took it for a drive, a few multiple gear pulls were made except they were too much of wimps to get past 80% throttle which was a good thing.

4 pulls were made through 3 gears hitting full boost and 7K RPM's which means in 3rd gear they were going over 80 MPH on surface roads.

I never went back there, although I could have. I just spoke with my wallet, I never took any of my cars to their shop again.

The RX7 at the time had 550 HP and weighed 2600 lbs, no ABS no TC just 3 pedals a wheel and a stick.

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by bivenator

Most likely, the heater was removed to replace the PCV valve heater.

The hose did not come loose from the radiatior neck until well after the car sat with the ignition off. THis would indicate a still pressurized system and cast shade of the assertion by the dealer that the hose failed.

Your experience sounds like my 4 years of Audi ownership. Many times I would have to turn around and bring the car back before I even got home because either the same problem was still there or new problems had arose.

Those cars were at the dealership with a problem at least once every month for 4 years straight. One time it was there for a month because they could not figure out why it was burning up the key ignition.

Sorry you are going through this, it ruins your confidence in the car and the dealership.

[RKDinOKC]

Bought a new custom mini van once. They took it to "detail it for delivery". Came and told me the lot driver side swiped the building and they would fix it. Said you bet you are going to fix it...AND give me a price break from our original deal or I walk. Went home without the van.

[javadog]

I once took one of my cars in for service and the girl that fetched my complementary cup of coffee for me gave me one that was most unsatisfactory. I had requested cream in my coffee and she put half-and-half in it. I was severely disappointed and never went there again.