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Mine (2012 135i) went in August at about 77k miles.
Was on the freeway 100 miles from home on 105 degree weather.
I hadn't read up on it prior, so the yellow light and power loss was annoying. Red light and no response was scary!
Pulled over, let it cool, tried again.
Happened again in about 20 minutes. This time with a giant semi barreling down on me!
So I pulled over, stayed put, and called AAA. Been a "Plus" member for 17 years so trusted them to take care of me. (Used to drive a '66 Mustang with a busted fuel gauge. Getting stranded was a way of life. But never this far from home!)
Anyway, after finding a safe but visible spot to bed down, I realized I pulled into a brand new shopping center. Under construction. Nearest services 3 miles away. No food, water, restroom - nothing.
Though it's in the contract, at 6pm on a Saturday night AAA couldn't locate a driver willing to tow me back 100 miles.
Back and forth, never spoke to the same person twice, at 11pm they finally got me a driver who towed me to a dealer near where family was staying 35 miles away, but in the wrong direction.
Dealer gave me 20% off for the inconvenience but still charged $1800 for the privilege.
Closest trusted indy to me wanted $1200, but was more than 100 miles from my location. Great, trusted shop 104 miles away quoted $1400. But AAA Plus was unable to get me there. Lady on the phone said it would be $20 per mile for the extra if the driver agreed - but again, didn't have one.
Next day, brother drove me half way home. Took train to nearest station, and walked remaining 4 miles.
Car was done Tuesday - I just had to get back to it!
Local rental car would have been $50/day. Knowing it was one way (from just outside SF to really near state Capitol) was $100/day. Damn Camry.
In the end, after talking to two managers and a customer satisfaction guy, AAA came through. Covered the rental, train, 2 meals, and even the $400 difference between the Indy I was going to go to and the dealer I was forced to accept.
But what a pain.
TMI, I know. But they said the people that night just dropped the ball. It's like $2 per additional mile. They should have offered to bring my car to the local dealership, then put me up at a nearby hotel, with food and a rental car agreement. But didn't.
Tl;dr:
After reading up about it more, I could see preventative maintenance replacing the water pump at 80,000 miles. But that wouldn't have helped me.
Relying on AAA can still be a fools bet. They knew they blew it, and came through in the end. But I never made it to my niece's graduation party, and basically threw away a whole weekend.
If you're devastated by inconvenience, PM is a good idea. If you need to save your pennies, wait until it fails but prepared for some downtime.
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