Dented Hood and a Good Dealer Story

[odiford]

Figured this story was worth posting here as it is an opportunity for others to learn from my mistakes and concludes with a wholesome interaction with a stranger (the kind of thing we all need in today's world).

As I posted in What did you do to/for your 1er today?, I am currently doing a full fluid flush on my 128i. After returning from a short leak-test drive yesterday evening, I was inspecting my engine out in the driveway.

There was a bit of oil gathered around my valve cover gasket but I could not tell how old it was, so I decided to spray it down and see if it came back after another drive. So there I am, happily loving on my car with my metal pressurized spray can full of brakleen, proud of everything I had gotten done over the long weekend.

Satisfied with the amount of grime I had removed via spray, I put the can down on my air filter and went into my shop to grab a rag. As I was just about to head back out I heard a large bang, and instantly knew what had happened.

The cold had weakened my oldish hood struts, and the hood fell - directly onto my spray can, which has a lovely valve stem right on top for pressurization. This valve stem printed itself quite nicely through to the top of my hood, with a raised dent, nice paint chip, and spidering all around it. Terrible. One of those truly frustrating little things that ruins a day.

After about an hour of careful prodding and hammering I was able to get the dent all smoothed out, but this left the issue of the paint. I called the local BMW dealer (Sterling, about 30 minutes from me), and they said they had plenty of Alpine White touch up kits in stock. Wonderful.

Cut to today - work keeps me late now and again, but I split for the dealer immediately after my last meeting ended. I arrived at 6:45pm to find the whole parts department and all managers had gone home, there were just a few salesmen left.

I poked around for a while and tried to find someone who could help, but eventually gave up and headed for my car. As I was just about out the door, one of the last salesmen asked if he could help me with anything. I told him I was just looking for touch-up paint, but nobody seemed to have access to the parts department. He then explained that he had recently been promoted into sales, after 10 years as a parts tech, and said he would go check their usual hang outs to see if anyone was still around.

He came back 10 mins later to confirm they had all left, but said that he hadn't cleaned his service equipment out of his car yet and might have some paint there. "I'm parked about a 10 minute walk away, wait here and I'll be right back..." and he went jogging off into the cold.

Sure enough, he comes back 20 mins later with Alpine White and some clear coat touch-up. Incredible. I asked him what I owed him and he laughed - said he was just happy I was taking care of my car. I insisted some more and he handed me a business card and said I could repay him by sending some car-hungry friends his way. And that was that.

Now - my whole family is in sales. I myself have been in sales. I have seen every type of the schmoozy sales guy that there is, and this wasn't that. This was a car guy trying to help a car guy - and god damn it made my night. Truly impressive, and made me proud to own a BMW.

Anyway moral of the story is to be nice to people and don't leave tools in your engine bay. The End.

[blue135]

And replace those struts!
Good story.

[fotontom]

Thanks for passing that on. Always good to hear stories of decent people.

[NorthernDancer]

Few years ago I had a similar episode. I had my power steering cap off and laid upside down possibly on the air filter. I then did a couple of other things, came back and closed the lid. Oops. The end of the power steering cap/dipstick put a small dent in the hood and cracked the paint on the other side. Some $400 or $500 later all is fixed back as new.

With respect to your oil leak, remove your engine cover (rear bolt is very hard to access-don't drop it) and I'll bet your see a lot of oil in the recesses there and hopefully not yet down the spark plug holes. You'll need your valve cover gasket replaced ASAP.

[odiford]

Originally Posted by NorthernDancer

With respect to your oil leak, remove your engine cover (rear bolt is very hard to access-don't drop it) and I'll bet your see a lot of oil in the recesses there and hopefully not yet down the spark plug holes. You'll need your valve cover gasket replaced ASAP.

Inspected further today and the valve cover gasket is fine, just weeping a little oil from my eccentric shaft sensor seal. Simple fix.

[Rallysmurf]

I had mine slam shut in the wind today TWICE.
Finally got a stick prop. Cringed both times thinking if I set down anything in the way. I didn't. Got lucky. Struts ordered.

[odiford]

Glad nothing was damaged. I just installed my new hood struts this evening - they're quite stiff!

[krhodes1]

Always good to get great customer service. My local dealer is like that - just wonderful people.

I got clonked on the head by my Volvo's hood last week - new struts on the way. Thankfully my head is hard, but did not damage the Volvo's hood!