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Radiator repair/advice


Heather
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Hello, I have a situation with 2009 Impreza, 130,000+- miles.  The car was in the shop to replace right front wheel bearing, while completing this is was suggested to replace serpentine and ac belts so we agreed to have these completed also. When the car was picked up, less than 15 minutes of driving (about 35mph with AC on) the car was acting strange and stalled out at a stop light. Car restarted, drove about 1 mile, all systems shut down, smoke coming out from under the hood, car pulled over and turned off.  First thought was one of the belts was not installed correctly however when tow truck came and checked under the hood, both belts are intact. They noticed that the radiator was empty. The top part where the hose connects to the radiator is completely broken. The clamp is still attached to the hose, the plastic is actually broken off the radiator. My question is, how likely is it that this was damaged during replacement of the belts? Car was in working order prior to this, no issues with fluid leakage or overheating.  Thank you for any advice!

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Impossible to say.  I’m inclined to think in this case it broke under their watch but they may or may not be responsible. 

This is how this works:

Older radiators can crack there. It’s not common on a 2009 and is unexpected. But not impossible or shocking.  

1. It may be they did nothing to it  

2. it may have already been broken but asymptomatic and just the process of working on it sent it over the edge.  If someone has blockages in their heart then has a heart attack working out. you don’t blame the exertion or sue the health club for years of deterioration.

3. They may have broke it  

Most “customer” diagnosis and assumptions are wrong and the propensity to blame others is real. So I’m hesitant to assign blame without knowing any vehicle history  - how many owners, previous work, has the engine ever been removed, headgaskets original or not, when was the timing belt replaced, what all was done for that...etc  

******* That being said - the cursory info we have - 15 minutes is fairly telling that:

1. They damaged it

2. it was already fatigued and near end of life and they sent it to its grave  

#2 is challenging - they can’t be on the hook for any fatigued, asymptomatic part that’s ready to fail any moment.  

and that’s further confused by unscrupulous shops who use that fact to cover their blunders.

You see how complicated this is?

 

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Thank you for the feedback. I think it was a combination of an older part that did not want to be touched and was inadvertently bumped into!  The shop installed a brand new radiator this morning free of charge!  This could have gone either way I guess, I have been going to them for over 10+ years having 3 cars serviced regularly so, maybe they accidentally damaged it and were owning their work, maybe they just saw the value in keeping a customer happy, either way, great customer service on their part, happy to say I will continue to be a loyal customer!

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On 7/17/2021 at 12:35 PM, Heather said:

Thank you for the feedback. I think it was a combination of an older part that did not want to be touched and was inadvertently bumped into!  The shop installed a brand new radiator this morning free of charge!  This could have gone either way I guess, I have been going to them for over 10+ years having 3 cars serviced regularly so, maybe they accidentally damaged it and were owning their work, maybe they just saw the value in keeping a customer happy, either way, great customer service on their part, happy to say I will continue to be a loyal customer!

Wow - That's fantastic,  good for them. That is above and beyond on their part.  I'd go leave them some 5 star reviews on google, but don't mention they replaced a part for free - that just makes others think that's normal or they can expect free parts and works against a good business!

Good job asking - some parts are totally unexpected if they break and others are not uncommon.  

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