[ILoveChess100]

So my 2011 135i with PPK hit ~12000 miles and about a year since purchasing so it was due for its oil change as part of BMW's recommended maintenance intervals. By now you must already be wondering 'an oil change... What could they possibly screw up during what is considered to be one of the simplest maintenance that can be performed on a vehicle, besides maybe stuff like adding air to a tire?' Well apparently enough to screw up the car.

So the service was on early saturday morning, seemed to have gone through just fine... About an hour and 15 min wait or so, kinda standard. I happen to live about 3.5mi from BMWIrvine. Drove home afterwards, everything seems fine. My commute to work is about 4.9mi (these distances will become important soon enough). Mon/Tu, pretty standart, go to work, 10hrs there, come back. I am sure mostly everyone on the forums that owns similar configuration to my car has observed that it takes a little over 6mi for the temp gauge to get to 1 bar below half and it pretty much statys there forever during normal driving, or rising to half, maybe slightly above if you are driving it like you stole it on a twisty mountain pass. So through tuesday, all my driving hasn't been long enough to notice anything funky that might be going on as it relates to temperature.

Wed was a different story. To work was the same, but on the way back silly me decided to make a trip to Costco. Right around what would be mile 7, I glance at the instrument cluster and see the temp right smack at half. Odd, that doesn't usually happen and I wasn't driving as if I stole it. Change lanes as my next turn is coming up, glance back at the cluster and gauge is just climbing, this time fast enough to be observably moving. Didn't take long to figure this can't be good, let off the gas but was already in the left lane slowing down for a light at a major intersection. Bing Bing, yellow sign for temp warning comes on. 5 sec later, bing bing red sign for temp warning comes on. Now I hope none of you ever have to experience driving your car in limp mode at 5mph because thats about how fast it would go with the pedal to the floor, through a major intersection of angry drivers trying to get places while making a left turn. I am sure I was called multiple names and I am sure people thought 'god what is this 113 year old doing on the road and what a shame he bought such a nice fast car, yet drives it with 5mph'... But of course what I was being called that wasn't my main concern as I was just trying to pull off safely and not get run over... Side of the road, waited for traffic to clear, popped the hood, coolant reservoir is boiling (and I mean boiling, like it made better burble sounds than the 135i stock exhaust when downshifting). So I start looking around the engine bay, assesing the amount of coolant spilled all over the place (quite a bit of it) and then it kinda hit me... Coolant is supposed to be blue-ish in tint. Whatever this liquid is it looks totally transparent. Coolant also is not supposed to boil, even with the temp 1 or 2 bars over half. Water on the other hand could easily boil at that temperature. Hmmmmmm. Did BMW service add water in my coolant? So fast forward a bit, waited a few mins, turned the car on, moved like 50 feet before the red temp warning lit up again so I figured I am just going to get to a safer part on the road and let it cool off a lot more. An hour and a half later, the temp came down enough for me turn around and make it part way home, pulling off before the gauge hit half, then waiting another 45min and finally home. So now I am trying to figure out if there is a way for me to prove the coolant is not actually coolant, but without opening the reservoir as I don't want the stupid dealership to go tell me that I did something because the thing has been opened. Any ideas?

My plan for tomorrow is to drive straight to the dealership early in the morning when its nice and cold and give them one hell of a time. But of course I have no guarantees they will figure out and fix the problem without breaking something else, or even admit to their wrongdoing whatever it may have been... So anyone ever deal with a situation like that? How do you approach the dealership and force them to do the right thing and tell you waht they screwed up? Can I just pop up there with a video camera and demand to film them while they diagnose the problem with my vehicle?

Also any ideas as to what else might be wrong? If the coolent reservoir is actually coolant (lets assume), what other thing during an oil change can cause the car to overheat? I am thinking too little oil? (prb not). Water in the oil tank? (lol I know this would have broken a lot earlier so that last question is a joke).

Anyways I am just incredibly frustrated. When I first bought the car I had problems with CrevierBMW for software related stuff so I switched to IrvineBMW. I am starting to run out of dealerships close enough to be considered for service.