Cali Kid Corals

Quick Car Advice Needed

patchin

Supporting Member
Situatiion:
Had full pre-sale car inspection done at reputable shop in SR (where I am now). Don't know if they checked the radiator, ie coolant approx 6 months ago.

Last week found white junk sprayed all over engine from cracked overflow tank. I had not paid any attention to the radiator since purchase. There was white junk in the radiator.

Fri had radiator fully flushed, overflow replaced and given a clean bill of health for the rad system.

Sat the radiator blew apart. The "male adapter" that fits into the rad hose blew off of the side of the radiator. Coolant probably soaked the alternator, will it go out again (already replaced once)?

Opinions on how to talk to the mechanics involved? Should they have any responsibility in any of this?
 
Hey Steven, I wouldn't worry about the altinator it should be fine. As far as talking to the shop, let them know wxactly what happend. They supposedly fixed the the coolant problem, but the next day the radiator exploded. Since they were working on the cooling sytem and it was such a close time from repair to failure they should offer you some sort of assistance in making the new needed repairs. I personally would ask that they pay for the labor to replace the radiator while you pay for the part. In most instances they will execpt that kind of a compormise because they are not loosing too much out of pocket.
ps is the shop on Beta court? No name need be given, I have just worked with quite a few shops up there in the past.
 
IMO, and from the small amount of information I have seen from your two posts, the shop shouldn't carry much responsibility on this if any at all. At the most you could hit them up for a free oil change in the future or something. It sounds like, (and I'm basing this 100% on a reply from your other thread, not research or personal experience) the plastic parts on that car are known to commonly fail at your mileage/age. Blaming the mechanic for a wear part failing is a good way to destroy the relationship with that mechanic.

In mechanical systems, the pieces age together, and replacing a part that fails often results in a chain reaction of failures as the next weaker part gives out. This isn't the mechanic's fault, and they have a tough job in many cases because often when they recommend expensive repairs the customer freaks out. They have to find a balance between replacing things that are likely to break and the customer's tolerance for spending money. The issues you've had with your car are common to all used cars, especially as plastic becomes more and more common in hot areas of the engine. A used car is a used car is used, it's always a risk.

I second the opinion that your alternator will be fine. If you are concerned, you could spray it off with a garden hose (engine off), but it's probably not an issue since it's been raining. At the most it would have a sticky coating as the antifreeze evaporated.

With all this said, the exception I see here is if the male fitting that came apart was cracked due to an overtightened hose. If this is the case, it might be the shop's fault, but if it's in one piece then you don't have a case imo.
 
anathema said:
IMO, and from the small amount of information I have seen from your two posts, the shop shouldn't carry much responsibility on this if any at all. At the most you could hit them up for a free oil change in the future or something. It sounds like, (and I'm basing this 100% on a reply from your other thread, not research or personal experience) the plastic parts on that car are known to commonly fail at your mileage/age. Blaming the mechanic for a wear part failing is a good way to destroy the relationship with that mechanic.

In mechanical systems, the pieces age together, and replacing a part that fails often results in a chain reaction of failures as the next weaker part gives out. This isn't the mechanic's fault, and they have a tough job in many cases because often when they recommend expensive repairs the customer freaks out. They have to find a balance between replacing things that are likely to break and the customer's tolerance for spending money. The issues you've had with your car are common to all used cars, especially as plastic becomes more and more common in hot areas of the engine. A used car is a used car is used, it's always a risk.

I second the opinion that your alternator will be fine. If you are concerned, you could spray it off with a garden hose (engine off), but it's probably not an issue since it's been raining. At the most it would have a sticky coating as the antifreeze evaporated.

With all this said, the exception I see here is if the male fitting that came apart was cracked due to an overtightened hose. If this is the case, it might be the shop's fault, but if it's in one piece then you don't have a case imo.

Regardless of a known failure or not the shop was making repairs on the cooling system and the following day he had a major failure. Any shop I have ever worked for will take some sort or responsibility for this and try to come to some sort of a compromise with the repair. Their first priority is to try and keep that customer at their shop.
 
That sounds more than fair to me, and sounds like the shop is doing his best to make you happy.

Fwiw, most shops have very explicit wording in their warranty boilerplate covering exactly this situation. In most cases, shops only offer any kind of guarantee on the actual items they replace. In your case, they replaced the overflow reservoir because it had an issue with excess pressure/plastic fatigue/overheating that caused that part to explode/crack. Essentially, you brought them a car that had an issue with the cooling system. They fixed the obvious problem and observed it working correctly. Whatever root problem that is stressing the cooling system simply took out the next weak link, which is common.

I realize that you are putting a lot of weight behind their statement that the cooling system was fine, so maybe it might help to look at it from their perspective. You brought them a broken car, and the basic fix probably cost a couple hundred bucks. That car, anecdotally, has several plastic wear parts that could fail around the same time, however, if you bring them a car with a $200 part broken and they tell you to replace the radiator, the hoses, the head gasket(s), the seat heaters, and the gas cap you will probably accuse them of inflating the bill. If the idea that the plastic parts are wearing out is the correct one, then the shop was absolutely correct in telling you that the cooling system was operating correctly and in spec when they finished working on it. They could have pressure tested the radiator, and had it hold up fine, but I doubt they pressure tested it, because they would have had to bill you for that. It's very likely that they simply put it back together and observed that it worked, because remember a mechanic is costing you somewhere in the range of $100 an hour. Again, they have to walk a line between chasing all the many things that could be wrong with your car and not making your heart stop when you see the bill.

I've built and maintained a car for racing before, and every time I took a system apart I replaced a large portion of the wear parts. This is what it takes to make sure a car never breaks, and it's hours of labor, testing and effort. Also don't forget a big pile of money. I really doubt that you would be happy if you'd taken your car in to replace the $200 ruptured overflow container and they replaced and tested all the possible things that could be wrong in that situation. Your bill for that would have likely been closer to $5000 just to sort out the cooling system. No shop "diamond" certified or not, is going to give your car this extreme amount of care without billing you for it. They usually work hard to get the repair done in as little time as possible to keep your cost down.

You just had bad luck, but pretty much bad luck that should be expected when buying a used luxury car, especially a german one. They break, a lot. I've spent more on repairs for my used audi than I spent buying it, the only reason I keep it around is because it's an amazing snow car for trips to tahoe. That, and the Subaru wagons of the same vintage have a known head gasket issue I wanted to avoid. If I wanted a car I never had to repair I'd stay a million miles away from an overengineered german luxury brand.

I'm actually surprised that the shop is offering to cover this, even though they signed off on your cooling system. If I was you I'd jump on the deal. They didn't replace the part that broke, and the car was in the shop because of a cooling system failure to begin with. I still hold to my original opinion that unless you find evidence that they broke the part, they aren't responsible.
 
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