gopack42
New member
Hello Friends!
I recently had the fitting that comes out of the firewall where the heater core hose attaches to replaced due to its failure. I have 120000 miles on my car with no major issues since I bought the car in 2018 with 35000 miles. 10 days after the dealership did the repair, the same part broke leaving me stranded on the interstate, just like last time. This is a long story, so bare with me. The first time it broke, I was 4.5 hours from home headed to visit my brother. It cost $1000 at the local dealership. I get home and my water temp light starts flashing. I looked and there are no leaks, and the car runs fine, but noticed the water tank is low. I add some DI water and the light went off and things were fine for another day or two. I have to head to the airport 2 hours away 2 days ago and all of a sudden the water temp light starts flashing again, but I checked and the tank js full. I cut the car off, wait a minute, and crak it back up and the light goes off. I continue driving. I get another 40 mins up the road on the interstate and start seeing and smelling smoke in the cabin. I pull off and open the hood and the same part was now broken. The original dealership decides to tow it back to their dealership, which is 3 hours from where I broke down. Because Im flying out, I get an uber to the airport while they tow my car 3 hours. I get a call amd they tell me that the reason this fitting broke is because I have failed to regularly flush my coolant system. They want $2200 to "deeply clean" the coolant system because its "all gunked up" but they'd fix the original part. My question is, I don't see a published service interval for a coolant system flush, so how am I as a customer supposed to know to flush the system? Also, they just flushed the system when they repaired the broken fitting, and didn't notice an issue at that time?!? I've called other dealerships and they are a little taken back by what I've been told. My car is still under the emission repair recall's extended warranty, so is this not a warranty issue? I told them to fix the broken part and get me my car back without this deep system clean and I'd investigate further. Is there any advice here from the professionals? I honestly don't have $2200 to fix my car. Heck, I only owe $5000 on it, so this is extremely frustrating. Any thoughts?? Thank you all so much!!
I recently had the fitting that comes out of the firewall where the heater core hose attaches to replaced due to its failure. I have 120000 miles on my car with no major issues since I bought the car in 2018 with 35000 miles. 10 days after the dealership did the repair, the same part broke leaving me stranded on the interstate, just like last time. This is a long story, so bare with me. The first time it broke, I was 4.5 hours from home headed to visit my brother. It cost $1000 at the local dealership. I get home and my water temp light starts flashing. I looked and there are no leaks, and the car runs fine, but noticed the water tank is low. I add some DI water and the light went off and things were fine for another day or two. I have to head to the airport 2 hours away 2 days ago and all of a sudden the water temp light starts flashing again, but I checked and the tank js full. I cut the car off, wait a minute, and crak it back up and the light goes off. I continue driving. I get another 40 mins up the road on the interstate and start seeing and smelling smoke in the cabin. I pull off and open the hood and the same part was now broken. The original dealership decides to tow it back to their dealership, which is 3 hours from where I broke down. Because Im flying out, I get an uber to the airport while they tow my car 3 hours. I get a call amd they tell me that the reason this fitting broke is because I have failed to regularly flush my coolant system. They want $2200 to "deeply clean" the coolant system because its "all gunked up" but they'd fix the original part. My question is, I don't see a published service interval for a coolant system flush, so how am I as a customer supposed to know to flush the system? Also, they just flushed the system when they repaired the broken fitting, and didn't notice an issue at that time?!? I've called other dealerships and they are a little taken back by what I've been told. My car is still under the emission repair recall's extended warranty, so is this not a warranty issue? I told them to fix the broken part and get me my car back without this deep system clean and I'd investigate further. Is there any advice here from the professionals? I honestly don't have $2200 to fix my car. Heck, I only owe $5000 on it, so this is extremely frustrating. Any thoughts?? Thank you all so much!!
