Perfect question for me. I have a Bmw E46, 320i from 1998, with a 2 litre engine, 6 pistons in line, my darling as I like to call it.

My car does not have an electric fan, but a viscous couple that connects automaticaly when the engine gets warm enough.

I went to a mechanic to change the belts and my water pump as it was old, plus some check ups. I left the car, gave him the money for the parts and went home. I came back at the end of the day picked up the car, paid the man and went home.

The next day I started the car and drove off. After maybe 10 min, I heard a noise and something starts banging really bad under my hood/bonnet.

I panic, stop and open the hood. To my surprise, my viscous couple propeller snapped, cracked my radiator and cut the brand new belts, and all the plastics around were in pieces. Four hundred euros worth of damage in a split second.

I was puzzled on how this could have happened. I called a trailer and they took the car to a neighbour of mine, an old mechanic.

He checked the car, and asked me what did I change on the car, and I said: the water pump and belts.

He then said: “I want to see the water pump”, so with all the space ‘’created’’ by the propeller, removed the water pump in less than 5 min.

Turns out, instead of putting a new pump, he replaced it with an old one, that was in a critical condition compared to the previous one that was on the car, and I paid for a brand new one.

In the photo you can see the exact fan i had:

So you can understand, the viscous coupler is attached directly to the water pump and creates a lot of pressure and force against it, and if the water pump has bad bearings, it won’t turn around smoothly and circular but it will create a faulty movement that will make the viscous couple fan to go in a not circular way, if that makes any sense, and then snap, and that is exactly what happened to me. Imagine driving at 3–4k revs and the viscous coupler kicks in on a hot day.

I was furious to say the least. I called my lying piece of shit mechanic, I told him: “I’m coming over”, he asked “why?” and I just hung up.

I got there, and between all the swearing words you can think of, I explained that he scammed me and he fucked up.

I told him to give me back all the money I gave him for the parts and labour, or else I will beat the shit out of him, (he did give my money back) then I called a friend who works in the IRS (the fiscal authority in my country)(in my country is called ANAF i’m just giving an example for those that don’t understand) and told him he didn’t issue a receipt nor he pays taxes for half of his customers.

Then I called the Customer’s Protection Service to tell them i was scammed into paying for a service but I didn’t get it, and then i called the local Environment Authority and told them that, around his garage, there is a landfill where he throws all the used oil from the cars he fixed.

Needless to say, he got fined for so much money he worked the next year for free. Also I found out, by accident talking to some of my car enthusiasts, that he does this kind of shit all the time, as in not changing parts, when people pay for new ones.

You simply don’t play with people’s cars, especially not when those people care about them, and spend time and money to make sure all is good.

Thank you for reading.

I apologise for the grammar.