Water Pump

I suspect that many people have a love-hate relationship with their BMWs, the love part being the German engineering that makes it such a great car to drive, and the hate part being the German engineering that makes it breathtakingly expensive to repair.  


Take for example the water pump that inexplicably failed while doing 80 on I-15 on my way to the high desert on Sunday. Sensing that I was in the worst possible position in the far left lane of a five lane highway with no shoulder, the pump quits, the non-circulating coolant overheated, and spewed out the relief valve, and then the engine smoothly rolled back to a permanent idle setting after overtemping.  Good on the Germans, the engine saved itself, but the water pump rests deep within the cavernous engine well, because it never fails why would anyone need access to it, and 5 hours and fifteen hundred bucks later, it was replaced.