My wifes Cooper 'S' failed for the first time last week. The power steering stopped working. No real problem there, as obviously BMW are doing the repair under warranty. However, while at the garage, I asked them to look into the fact that the car is also losing a small amount of coolant. It drips from the car when the engine is cold, but is only a very small leak.
First of all they diagnosed the well known 'header tank split' issue, so stripped this out and replaced it. However, I myself could have told them that it wasn't the header tank, as the water was not coming from that part of the engine. They rang up on Friday morning to say that they now believe that the water pump needs replacing. So, to get at this component, seems they have to remove a large number of parts. Like the Intercooler, Supercharger, and lots of other parts. So the car is now in the garage for almost a week. Still, no problem, warranty, courtesy car etc to make things better.
However, here's the big worry. What happens if the water pump goes after the warrenty period expires? My concern is the labour charges. If they have to strip half the engine out to get at the part, then labour charges would be huge. I know they cram an awful lot into the very tight space under the bonnet, but if a simple part like this is going to take 20+ hours of labour to get at and replace, who will pick up the bill? After warranty, it will be us, the owners. This could have a serious effect on the long term resale value of the car. I wonder how many other parts are buried away in inaccessable places? I believe ancillary parts on performance engines are often a weak point in later life, due to their high work load. When you have an all inclusive warranty, its easy to ignore this as an issue. What happens when the warranty runs out?????
