1991 BMW 325i: Bad Tune-up

Q—I took my 1991 BMW 325i to the dealership to replace the head gasket, pulley, timing belt, and fan belts. After picking up the car, I noticed that the temperature gauge was swinging wildly from cold to about halfway then back down. Once the car is driven for a while, the temperature reaches about one-fourth and the gauge just stays there. This never happened before I took the car in for repair. I took the car back to the dealership, and they replaced the thermostat and charged me $120. Could the replacement of the head gasket and the belts have been responsible for the way the temperature gauge works and I just got ripped off, or is there no correlation between the previous repair and the temperature gauge?

A—We agree that the new problem seems awfully coincidental, but since the new thermostat fixed the problem, perhaps that is exactly what this is: a coincidence.