Yep I don't want the person selling me the vehicle saying we'll do it for you and sell it for the same price....rather have $$$ taken off, then I take it where I want.

I know it's water under the bridge, but any chance the coolant was low? Seems to be common on these cars. The 2nd day I had my car, holy **** there was no coolant in the reservoir, and no coolant to be found in the radiator! I was like dang head gaskets, I got ripped off! But I had a 1 mo. 1k miles per NYS law, and had already burned like 300 of the 1000! Temp was where it should have been. Turns out evaporating is common, and based on the location of the reservoir cap, and super long life coolant, this is neglected it seems. Once I topped it off, I had Lexus do a drain/fill, and after that a timing belt job where it was done again, and there's no problem. Maybe every 6 mos. I put a teeny bit back in.

On your next car take a peek at the coolant level, you view it from behind looking forward. The reservoir is under the plastic air intake, which has to be removed to get to the cap....good luck in your search!

 

I bet it was, but I didn't check. You can be sure I will do so next time, now that I am aware of how to do so. I do know there was no smoke out of the tailpipe, at least not visible to me while driving (and I checked).

 

Glad you dodged the bullet. I agree with John on using dealers and avoid them like the plague. Good friend from church use to work at a dealer and would see the other techs set the new parts aside and not put them in vehicles as they felt the old ones were fine and when you button it back up, who's going to know. The tech gets paid for labor he did not do and has a stockpile of new parts.
He left there and opened his own shop that I still use to this day when I need it.
Your car is out there, you just need to find it...

 

I was thinking that not just cars, but anything....if the old part is good, and the mfg. paid for a new one, a "human" has the tendency to consider not replacing, and saving the new one. I even did this. When I had a gas stove delivered, the delivery person said oh you didn't order a hose, I'll just give you one then. But I never installed it and I used the old one. Since it was 2004, everything is fine. My buddy said dang you shoulda used the new one.

With BMW fuel injectors, when replaced under warranty, the tech has to scan the ser# into the system for the claim to be approved. I assume they have to go back, not really sure? Or maybe the new ser# has to be somehow matched to the vehicle? I guess they are valuable, serialized, and the procedure is to prevent the notion of getting a warranty replacement, and not installing it...

 

Glad you dodged that bullet. Good luck.