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I drag myself out of bed. Woozy, sleep-deprived, nauseous. Yeah, this is my idea of a road trip, baby!!! I call the BMW dealer and the curt young lady who answered the phone told me they could easily look at my car and to bring it right on in.
I had a bite of the FREE! breakfast at the hotel, then got myself over to the dealer. It was only a few miles away and with everything here set on a grid, it was easy to find.
The dealership is new, clean, stunning, well stocked. The Service Mgr, Brian, was very polite and friendly. He offered to have me wait in their elegant waiting room, with cable tv, free starbucks coffee, tazo teas OR he could shuttle me over to the mall to go shopping while I was waiting on my car.
I was too tired to do more than just sit there, so that's what I did.
I started thinking about if I could go forward and on to Nevada and I realized that if the car had more problems on the road, I'd potentially be in even more of a world of pain. I'm so goal-oriented that part of me needs to attain this task at whatever price and the other part of me is yelling at the first part and saying to just GO HOME already!!!!
They ran the diagnostics. Bad news. The same sensor failed, the thermostat was failing and the air-intake was crapped up, too.
$1400.
I got on the phone with Gary, again! and he talked to the Service Mgr about the history of the car and they talked about what to fix or if the sensors really failed or if it wasn't a uncleared fault from last month. We all went back and forth. Sam and Chuck were calling me. I was feeling torn up inside about everything. I'd come so far, but still had another 1300 miles to go. I just cried some more...then pulled myself together.
It was deemed that the water pump should also be replaced when the thermostat was done, so that was added to the bill. While they were at it, I'm at the WTF-state now, anyway, so I am having them detail the car while they're at it. It's LONG overdue and if I'm gonna have more car problems, then car should look nice. HA HA HA.
$2007.00
BUT! They are giving me a rental car for free!
Oh brother...
oh...and there's a part that has to be overnighted so my car might be running by Friday or it might be Saturday or who knows when.
So I get into my Nissan Sentra rental and limp back to the hotel to ponder what my next steps will be, but first...
a visit to Target to get tampons!
There's a 12-month warranty
There's a 12-month warranty on all genuine BMW parts, so the sensor itself should be covered as a free replacement. (Which sensor was it, again?) Getting the water pump done at the same time as the T-stat is very smart. Might want to have them check the radiator hoses and the water inlet as well. It's just too bad that you have to pay outrageous dealer rates for that work.
Please tell me that you have been cleaning the air filter periodically! Remember, it's a high-performance add-on, not a disposable paper filter. The ITG foam filter is designed to be cleaned and re-used, but you MUST MUST MUST spray the outside of it with the ITG Dust Retention Coating before putting it back on the car! If you have the can I gave you with the car (along with the spare filter, I think) you can have Sam oil the spare and FedEx it to some place convenient. (Maybe to the BMW dealer if you're willing to stay an extra day?)
Huh?
OMG! You shoulda got a TOYOTA! LOL! :D
Hope you get back on the road soon and safely - and LET ME KNOW if you're not to chicken to come to the coast!! I double-dog dare ya!! :D