I have my car in a local dealership bc the coolant system light was on. They told me that they had to replace the coolant reservoir, i wasnt to worried since I have extended warranty, couple days later they told me that the technitian had broken the radiator while removing it to clear away for the reserviour. Now over 2 weeks later they tell me that they are still waiting on the radiator, since they say they didnt want to overnight the radiator since would be extra charges to me, and also are telling me that is common to the radiator to brake when removing it... Call me crazy but why would a company designed something that will break every time its removed and also why isnt the tech trainned to remove it without braking.. My question is : 1) is all this true ? 2) shouldnt the dealership be completely responsible for the damages done in my car while they have it ??? Thanks for any imput

 

while i never worked for mazda, i did work for a dealer for a while. and when warranty parts are out, they are flown in, and freight is backcharged to the manufacturer. here is how it works. your local dealer stocks some parts. if the part is out, then we check inventory on the computer. it will tell what dealer has that part. if it is another local dealer, we do a dealer to dealer buy. all dealers have a local warehouse that serves several dealers in the area. if the part aint there, and i cant believe such a common part is not, then it is sourced to a regional warehouse, which serves several local warehouses. if not at a regional, then it goes to a national warehouse, which might be more than one. in any case, any dealer anywhere can search by computer in seconds for that part. if the part is not in the usa, but overseas, it STILL gets flown in, but will take at least another day. your dealer is screwing you. look in your handbook, it should have your mazda area rep phone nr. start by calling them, they can check where the part is, and make sure you dont have to pay for it. also, check your local lemon laws. i think dealers can keep a car only for a short time, then they have to buy it back. also, they may have done more damage than just the radiator, and are trying to cover their a** while they fix it. go and see your car to be sure.

 

Thank you for your imput, I will go check on my car

 

Those reservoirs are a right pain in the ****. Even tho I had prior knowledge from my foreman I managed to snap the small pipe off the radiator without even touching it. The plastic of the radiator gets old & brittle and will snap without any effort. As we have no idea where in the world you are I can't really comment on freight. Al-tho even getting a part from Japan to NZ or OZ only takes 2 weeks.

 

if the dealer is charging the customer for the radiator, this is wrong. also, again, from my dealer experience(not mazda), unless the part is on international backorder, which i find hard to believe a radiator would be, unless it was for a really old car, then mazda should fly it in, and eat the freight. which is what would happen where i used to work. here in the usa, the service writer is the one talking to the customer. the sw is the one who is trying to stall. if i were the customer, i would go straight to my mazda rep, whose phone number is in the owners manual. i have already done that twice with our 2013 mazda 3.