Head Gasket Blown 2 times in the last month

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As fanatic says them either trading standards or possibly get on with a claim due to loss of mobility, poor/dangerous work as they nearly wrecked the engine so negligence to job etc and sue them ?

The vehicle should have been examined properly and they acknowledged they messed up by not putting clip on so who knows what other damage they could have done etc don't let them trick you into more money
 
The bill came to £747 for parts and labour supplied by them that includes the cost of taking it for an MOT. I also supplied parts including cat. lambda sensor, brake pads, thermostat relocating kit, uprated expansion tank and front brake pads. The total cost was only a few quid short of £1000. They had my car for nearly 2 weeks.
 
cj86 said:
The bill came to £747 for parts and labour supplied by them that includes the cost of taking it for an MOT. I also supplied parts including cat. lambda sensor, brake pads, thermostat relocating kit, uprated expansion tank and front brake pads. The total cost was only a few quid short of £1000. They had my car for nearly 2 weeks.
Click to expand...

That's cheap!
 
jamesmartin said:
there would be 4 or more steps in tightening begining with torque wrench and ending with degrees
Click to expand...


When I got to the garage check up on the progress, the head bolts were in. From memory he tightened them, then did an approx. quarter turn on each one, the used the torque wrench until it clicked and stopped. After that I went home. Then waited for the news that my car was finished and had then passed its test. They refused to give the car back to me that night due to an oil leak that apparently started at the mot test where he said the tester had to red line it to get the new cat to be hot enough to pass the emissions. The oil leak is coming from the head. The next morning I went back again, and got told the leak seemed to stop and that they put oil leak stop in the engine, and said if it gets worse bring it back and see what happens. I read in the owners book that you should not take it over 3k revvs for 1st 1k miles, so with my normal driving style being 50mph on most fast roads and gentle to pick speed, I covered 550 miles with no further issues apart from the weird oil leak issue. Then about 7 miles into a regular once a week trip of 15 miles each way I put my foot down up a hill to maintain speed and instead of maintaining speed I lost 5mph and just caught a glimpse of steam out the back of my car as it was a very windy day, I checked the temp gauge and it was steady half way as normal so drove another 3 miles and pulled into the 1st layby that came up. I popped the bonnet and found the top rad pipe had come off. And could see it handn't been clamped on. By chance I hadn't taken a bottle of water I had with me when I bought the car and topped the coolant up and put the hose back on and drove very gently another 5 miles to ECP where I bought anti freeze and went to the tool shop next door to it and got some pliers as the hose clip (pinch together type) was on the hose but down the pipe more. Bled it as best as I could and then did my grocery shop and drove home, I stopped half way and found the level had dropped a bit so topped it up and made my way home. Then trouble ever since.
 
It was done all cash in hand to help keep the cost down for me as it was supposed to be a favour.

But before I do anything about the garage now, My friend has agreed to help me sort the head gasket at home once I have all the parts. Only thing is, I haven't got a penny to my name, and have my Mum swearing at me as she is buying a replacement head for the car on Sunday for £85 which is ready skimmed and has new valve stem seals.

I have no idea what I am doing, my friend is a lot more clued up, and I have a Haynes manual, this is the last resort for me, If I can't fix it with my mate, I will literally be carless. And housebound.

At the moment the car is using between 1mm and 2mm of the level of coolant in the expansion tank every time I use it. And I have been opening the oil cap once parked up for about 10 minutes to let some of the water evaporate. I am doing most of my shopping online now and having home delivery, but still have to drive to a shop to get little bits which is a minimum 6 mile round trip. And I have to take my partner to the train station and collect from the station 5 days a week which is a 4.5 mile round trip (9 miles a day) but the car stays parked up where possible and is only used when absolutely needed. And as things stand now can't see me affording all the parts before January next year. Currently my heater matrix outlet pipe is bodged with mondeo pipes but is a real temporary job.
 
Did you get a receipt at all ? And did they stamp history or anything ? If so you can use that or as it'll have still had to go through books even if cash unless tax dodging you should be able to get something back against them
 
The other thing as well which was the end to the argument of them repairing the car free, was apparently they did a head gasket test using a blue liquid with the coolant that stayed blue, but the next day when I went back as I text the guy who did the work saying I think the head gasket has gone, he re did the test in front of me and it went GREEN, indicating HG failure, and they said because it didn't show failed before they gave it back after the pipe split, that they weren't liable and could only offer discounted labour. The same day before I went to the garage a woman drove into the side of me. Another long story but not HG related.
 
Even if it was after they did the work it should have a warranty on it nothing major just something along the lines of satisfactory workmanship, can't remember the correct wording been a while since I did the semi law degree but you should still be partially covered as they have to make sure their work and quality of is up to scratch being a qualified garage
 
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