[hankcah]

Around 90k miles, my thermostat left me stranded for a few hours but it was okay, since I knew it was only a matter of time on my N54.

Indy shop charged me $500 Parts (did the waterpump, along with T/Stat as well) and $500 Labor = $1k overall.


About a year later...come to 106k miles, and a week ago my coolant says it's low, so I top it off with BMW coolant from my trunk. No biggie. Another week goes by and it says to fill it up again, light hasn't come on since.

This week, I decide to get some other preventative maintenance done on my car, Power Steering, ATF, OFH Gaskets, belts, and Walnut Blasting, and the different Indy Shop claims my Coolant hoses are leaking. They sent me a picture showing that there are two rubber hoses that were clamped but clearly that's not the way to do it, and since this last week they've come unattached...thus leading to what happened above.

I'm not happy I paid $1k only to be dealing with this issue a year later. Am I in the right/wrong to think that I want to go back to the other shop asking for something back?

It's been close to a year later, and I think their warranty is only 10k miles after service. I'm at 6k over their mark.

I had to pay the new Indy Shop about $80+ (maybe more) in hoses and labor. Not sure the exact number yet.

Do I just not go back to that old Shop.(They specialize in BMWs) Do I walk in there saying what happened and see what they say? Or take it up with my credit card and fight for the $500 in Labor that wasn't up to par? Should I get to the new Indy Shop to write out the expenses for the hoses and with the picture?

Or am I overreacting? What would you do?

Going back to the original shop sounds like a headache. If you took it back to them BEFORE getting any hoses changed, they would have had a chance to make it right. Now, I doubt they'll just take the other shops word for it. Since it's already fixed just chalk it up to "lesson learned." It kinda is what it is at this point IMHO.

[GMWNashville]

The car wouldn't have made it this long without an issue if something the other shop did is really the cause of it..

[Efthreeoh]

I agree with the above two posts. Too late to go back to the old shop, and whatever shoddy work they did reattaching the hoses would have shown up long before now. The cooling system around the t-stat and water pump use BMWs funky plastic hose connector, or plain old hose clamps. The BMW connectors can be assembled not fully seated and trick you into thinking they are properly connected, but if they were not fully seated they would pop off when the system reached pressure. As for the plain old hose clamp connections, any decent Tech shouldn't screw those up, but if the hose is properly seated after a while the hose clamp is almost unnecessary. It could be as simple as a o-ring went bad in one of the BMW connectors.

Post the pictures and let's see what you are talking about.

[catcher22]

1 year and 16,000 miles is too late to go back to a shop to tell them their work was not done correct.

Edit: Unless they provided some sort of extended warranty. GL