Old vs. New Radiator - What has BMA shipped me?

[Mitch90535im]

http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/mitch90535im/radiator.jpg

[winfred]

525

[Mitch90535im]

That makes it 1 -3 with service from these guys. I love their prices, but their compentence sux.

[George M]

...not a nice thing to say about our friends at BMA. Competence is a two sided equation.
I have had no problem getting the right parts...see my related post.
George

[Bill R.]

radiator.com has it with a lifetime warranty for 224, if you check with them they have distributors in most major cities, even here in Tucson. I usually call in an order and go pick it up in 15 minutes. They have had every radiator in stock that I have ever needed, volvo bmw mercedes and every japanese and american etc etc....224 for lifetime or if you only want one year warranty it drops about 10%.... And no disrespect to Patrick at BMA but i usually don't order radiators from them, I prefer to get radiators and heater cores from places like radiator.com that only carry radiator products, less problems and the part is alway correct, plus they usually tip me off to the latest stuff in the cooling system industry and what problems are showing up .... Other than that I order all other parts from BMA with out any problems...

[Mitch90535im]

...not a nice thing to say about our friends at BMA. Competence is a two sided equation.
I have had no problem getting the right parts...see my related post.
George

Agreed, but a parts house should be able to take an order for a "1990 535i 5speed - radiator" and come up with the correct part # because surley all their customers are not going to have access to an ETK. No different than if I went to Auto Zone for a valve gasket set for a 1989 Chevy 1500 with a 350 v-8.

[Mitch90535im]

radiator.com has it with a lifetime warranty for 224

Thanks Bill, if I hadn't already talked with Patrick I would likely take your advise on that. Since I'm planning on hanging onto this e34 for years to come I'm pretty sure this won't be the last cooling system repair.

What's interesting to me for as much as some of you guys have had to sink into your e34's - I've had this 535i since Sept 2001 and this is the first repair of any signaficant $ amount (if you can even call $200 significant these days) that I've had to do outside of normal PM. (that could be because the PO had somewhere in the neighborhood of $6K in receipts making the car right before he sold it to me.)

I just don't think I've ever owned a better car. One that was more fun to drive in a straight line (see attached) but none better than this 5'er.

That's my mom circa '72 - As you can see she knows all about us boys and our love for cars...


http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/mitch90535im/70%20::Cuda.jpg

http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/mitch90535im/535i%20resized.jpg

[George M]

Your Mom is a good looking lady Mitch. Your car pics ain't bad either.
Here's to our Mom's for Mother's Day. Keep in mind as Sunday approachs...nobody will ever love ya like Mom.
George

[George M]

the phone or on-line be it for cars made in Germany or domestic...versus buying over the counter and physically seeing the parts to know if they are correct. I will take my chances at BMA for these cars...lol.
George

[Mitch90535im]

Your Mom is a good looking lady Mitch. Your car pics ain't bad either.
Here's to our Mom's for Mother's Day. Keep in mind as Sunday approachs...nobody will ever love ya like Mom.
George

Yeah, that was in '72 and she's 74 now I believe (if I'm counting right).

[Uncle Paully]

by shipping me the right part priority mail. so that was definetely cool, but i could see mitch's point though. I specified Beru ignition wires and they sent me some other wires that did not even have a brand on them and that did not fit correctly(inductive pick-up on #6 backwards).
the problem has been fixed but now i have to ship them back, i have to be on top of getting the credit for the return shipping and they charged me 10.00 for shipping and handling on the new set of wires so that will need to be adjusted also.
just a whole lot, but the price was nice 149.00
pablo

[Mitch90535im]

My first negative experience was wiper blade refills.

I called and ordered wiper blade "refills" and when I received complete blades instead of just refills I probably wouldn't have been so suprised, except for the fact that they shipped me not 2, but 3. A right and left and another right. Of course they offered to take it back, credit me, etc, etc, but I just kept it. I figure if I ever sell the car it'll be a god selling point: "Comes complete with extra wiper blade"

Seriously, they are going to make the situation with the radiator right. They wouldn't take the replacement to LAX, fly it to Atlanta, and hire a taxi to porter it 70 miles north to Dalton, but heck, it'll get here Tuesday.

I just don't have a very high tolerance level for incompentence. Sure, it was a "new sales person" who took my order last Monday, but bottom line, it reflects poorly on their business' reputation, at least with me.

Gotta love those prices though.