I want to share my experience so other customers know what happened before deciding to bring their…read morecar here.
I brought my BMW in because it was losing coolant, and I ended up having to bring the car back three separate times for the same issue.
On my first visit, they told me the Heat Management Module (HMM) was the problem and needed to be replaced. I paid around $1,100, and they had my car for about two weeks.
The part that really confused me was what happened right after I picked it up. I live only about 3 miles away from the shop. I drove straight home, parked the car, and noticed it was already leaking coolant again. Actually, the leak looked significantly worse than it did before I brought the car in.
This made me question how the car was tested after the repair. I understand that not every problem is easy to diagnose, but I only drove about 3 miles after picking it up. If it was already leaking that badly when I got home, I don't understand how this wasn't noticed before the car was returned to me.
So I brought it back a second time. This time they told me the coolant reservoir cap was the problem and replaced it for around $70. The coolant loss still continued.
I brought it back for a third time, and this time they finally found a physical leak/hole in a coolant pipe. But while they were diagnosing the car, another coolant line broke during their inspection. They explained to me that the line was brittle and that it broke while they were checking the area with a mirror.
I understand that older parts can become brittle, but what really bothered me was that I was still expected to pay around $200 to repair a line that broke while they were inspecting my car.
They also recommended replacing the water pump for roughly $1,000. Just to be clear, I did NOT have the water pump replaced at this shop.
Another thing that concerned me was the coolant itself. Different colored coolants were added to my car at different times. When I asked about mixing different coolants, I was basically told, "coolant is coolant" and that mixing them was fine.
I also later asked about the diagnosis for the original $1,100 HMM replacement. I wanted to see the diagnostic code or some documentation showing why the HMM was determined to be the cause of the coolant loss, but I was never provided with a clear code or evidence showing that it was actually causing the leak.
I'm not writing this because I expect car repairs to be cheap. My problem is that I paid around $1,100 for the first repair, drove only 3 miles home and found the car leaking even worse, brought it back multiple times for the same problem, and then had another coolant line break during their inspection and was still expected to pay around $200 for that repair.
I understand that diagnosing coolant problems can sometimes be difficult and that older parts can be brittle. But after my experience, I would definitely recommend getting a second opinion before approving an expensive repair here. I would also ask for the actual diagnostic codes or test results and make sure the car was properly tested before taking it back.
For reference, I attached pictures. The first picture shows the relatively small coolant leak I had before bringing the car to the shop. The second picture was taken after their first $1,100 repair, when I drove about 3 miles home and found a much larger amount of coolant leaking underneath the car.
I'm just sharing what happened with my car and what I was told during these visits.
