Well as said yesterday I had an unscheduled trip today......

A BMW dealer in Trento called Activa SPA for a new Visco coupler and a 11 bladed fan.

No problems on my way there with overheating at all so why did I even bother, but still it might get hotter down south and I didn't want to risk the engine overheating somewhere stuck in the middle of nowhere.

So after wrestling with the onboard navigation and having to keep my eyes on the busy roads I got there in the end.

I told them I had a problemo ala macchina which they understood and was directed to the service representative for BMW who didn't speak any Englisch or German (BMW ?) and just pointed to the female on his left who was very busy with another customer and affcourse couldn't help me right then...... After finishing explaining the bill and getting a paper check for the requested amount (haven't seen those in a while !!) she asked a woman in the office behinf her to help me.

She dutifully came with me to the car looked at it and went to get the head mechanic who ...........

started to shake his head and looked very sorry...........

before starting to rattle in italian at the woman and luckily not me and she explained that they probably did'n't have the part ( no surprise there) and would have to order it. We followed the head mechanic who went into his office came out and walked into the shop area and came back and sat in his office again..... but despite my limited Italian (say non existend) I did gather he asked someone else to look it up. The intern came round the corner shortly there after and look round bewildered for there were a number of customers waiting for the head mechanic.

We again went to the car and he took the last 7 digits of the VIN number and went back inside trying to explain in limited english what he was about to do. To be sure I followed him back in and into the shop (hey I'm a nosy foreigner waht doe you expect) and told him by handsignaling that he needed the coupler too otherwise he would have solved the result not the cause of the trouble.....

He then also looked at the availability of the radiator which made me worry right then and there....
Since I already had noticed some small spot on the engine cover etcetera indicating a coolant leak.

Next he started to write some numbers down preceeded by what turned out to be a Euro sign, which really got me worried !
I had looked at online prices for the needed parts and these where nowhere near what he was wrinting now.
I was looking at a 500 - 800 euro bill if you added these up, but the radiator wasn't available at all and the other parts wouldn't arrive until Tuesday, by which time I was supposed to be near Como.

It had to be fixed so I just kept my cool (surprisingly given the heat and the amount involved) and asked if they could have the available parts delivered to the dealer in Como and fix the microleak as they called them with some Stopleak.

Sure no problem but I'd have to wait until 16:00 before they could do that. OK...............

I offered to ge the Stopleak myself to get going again but the head mechanic had just gone out to get some so they would start after the lunch break. I could go into town and have some lunch etc... but didn't feel like it so I just had some vending drinks and biscuits and settle comfortly on their couch waiting for things to progress and calm down......

Around 14:30 I was all aout of reading material (and it lasted only for that long because it was Italian offcourse) and went to check on the progress. Afterall I had seen the mechanic return and everybody else was in so what was the holdup right....

Well it turned out that the head mechanich had gone out for something else while he was at it and returned triomphantly with a very dirty looking fan assembly. He didn't even wipe the dust/spider webs off it but hey I wasn't about to complain after I heard the price. So he talked to the Mini representative again and this time no translation was needed.
No factura , non responsible isn't that hard to understand right. She asked him how much it would be and 50 euros did need translation just to be sure. I'll put a new one on there when I get back and the fanblade alone cost around 50, so I'll just keep an eye on the visco coupler until I return.

They put the Stopleak in, mounted the fan assembly and let the engine run for awhile and drove it around the block after the representative took me to a bank teller to get the money.

Then he declared it OK and after another 15 minutes of to-ing and frow-ing I just stood there looking lost.
Which worked perfectly and the representative finally offered me some water and asked what was wrong.

She then quickly squared everything away and I payed 50 euro in cash and 15 euro for the Stopleak and left the place as fast as I could before they changed their mind about the hour of work they had taken off. :)

But not before thanking Roberto for the help. But he was already busy with the other 5 people he was helping at the same time. He didn't quite communicate what he was doing, but he was getting the job done instead.... What a guy !

Having said that let's wait and see how the second hand bargain pans out over the next two weeks. :
Don't count your chickens yet and don't sell the hide before you have shot the bear etc.....etc.....

Before I forget to mention it : The drive to and from the dealership was enjoyable nonetheless and some of the views where to die for philosophically speaking, but not literally enough to make any foto's whilst driving along with the Italians. :)