plastic flange/ overheating

[rgirl]

hi all, I'm extremely new to this site, so please excuse me if I'm starting a new thread here about an old subject...

okay- so, four months ago, I bought my '98 318ti. it had 78,500 miles on it when I got it, and since then I've put about 6,000 miles on it. the guy I bought the car from had just replaced the radiator and the thermostat right before he sold it to me.

so you can imagine my disappointment the other day when my car overheated while exiting the freeway. I immediately pulled over and had the car towed to my mechanic, ($60) who said it was a plastic coolant flange that had cracked, ($375 including labor) which made sense since there was coolant everywhere. he fixed that, then he also replaced the thermostat because is was fried, ($50 plus labor) but it is still overheating. he said he thinks there is a chance of some engine damage, so he is going to check that out. ($1700 estimate)

my questions are these: one, if the radiator and thermostat were already replaced, why the heck weren't these stupid plastic pieces replaced at that time, especially if they are as notorious for breaking as I've been reading about on here?!

and two, if these f'ing plastic pieces are so notorious for breaking, shouldn't they maybe be recalled or something?