# Headgasket done for €1,500, now another garage say HG needs replacing



## sweetpenny (26 Feb 2007)

My mothers car started overheating last October and the local garage said it needed a new head gasket. This cost about 1,500. The car has been losing water ever since and the garage says it is nothing to be concerned about, just top it up.

I just dropped the car into the Main Dealer for them to examine it and they have said that the head gasket needs replacing. 

What they won't do is produce a report stating that the local garage failed to properly do the work last October.

Do I have a legal case against the local garage?


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## Vanilla (26 Feb 2007)

*Re: Negligence*

If the local garage took 1500 to replace a head gasket, said it was done, and now 5 months later another garage is saying it needs replacing again, yes, it sounds like you have a case against the local garage.


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## bond-007 (27 Feb 2007)

*Re: Negligence*

You will certainly never get another garage to go on the record and say another is at fault.


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## Mad_Lad (27 Feb 2007)

*Re: Headgasket done for €1,500, now another garage say HG needs replacing*

The trick is when you goto a garage try bring a male friend along that knows something about cars. If not, just being male, sometimes the service might be a little better. My sister had so much trouble with a local renault dealer until I went in with her.


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## xt40 (27 Feb 2007)

they probably did the gasket but did not get the head and or block skimmed 

if the block was the reason, it could have cost more than 1500 as the entire engine would have had to be taken out. having said that, they could/should have checked it to see if it needed doing.


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## ford jedi (27 Feb 2007)

what sort of car was it ?


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## Guest125 (27 Feb 2007)

Yes you definitely have a case,especially as the car was still losing water after the job was done,Fiat punto by any chance?? 1500 euro is very very expensive for a head gasket job.Then garages wonder why they have a bad reputation.................need I say any more.


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## sweetpenny (27 Feb 2007)

its a 2001 bmw 316. We need to get the job done by the main dealer and then talk to the solicitor about compensation.


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## DeBarr (28 Feb 2007)

Hi Sweetpenny

I had the head gasket replaced on my 1998 BMW 316 (older shape) about 3 weeks ago at 100,000 miles – apparently it’s common enough on the 316 at this mileage. There was a crack in the cylinder head also so I had to source a 2nd hand one of these from a car dismantler’s. When replacing the cylinder head my mechanic sent it to an engineering shop for skimming and replaced the gaskets, radiator, rubber water hose between rad and engine block etc. The lot cost me about 1500 including the 2nd hand cylinder head – a good deal cos I know the mechanic. I asked for a quote from BMW and they quoted me 1200 + VAT for the cylinder head part alone plus they were charging €100 per hour for labour. 

To check if it could be the gasket/cylinder head again there are a couple of things to check…..
1)     no heat from the ventilation system when the engine is warm – lack of water – this on it’s own is not conclusive but may indicate that oil and water are mixing in the block so the next thing to check is 
2) Check the oil on the dipstick – this should be clear – if it looks like “mayonnaise” (i.e. creamy texture) then this means water and oil are mixing in the engine block and point to gasket/cylinder head problem
3) Smoke coming from the exhaust when engine revving
4) Water coming from the exhaust pipe
5) Run a rag or insulated gloved!!!! finger around the inside of the exhaust pipe – do not do this without protection on your hand – exhaust systems are HOT!
6) Shudder when car started from cold. And then this goes when the engine is revved slightly.

It could be the gasket is fine but maybe the water pipe and radiator have been damaged as a result of the overheating last Oct. and are losing water. Check with the original garage if they replaced any of these parts at the time. Squeeze the water hose when the engine is cold – this should be squeezable. Also check if they had the cylinder head and block skimmed while they were doing the job. Did he give you a breakdown on the work he did?

Hope this helps. And Let us know how you get on

DeBarr


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## DeBarr (28 Feb 2007)

Sorry Sweetpeeny forgot to say that the residue from the inside of the exhaust from point 5 above would have the same mayoniasse type texture as point 2 (i.e. points to oil and water mixing in the engine)

DeBarr


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## ford jedi (28 Feb 2007)

1500 for getting the head gasket done on that car was a bit rich as this is a easy head to remove but the also do blow head gaskets very easy.so cheap skates dont get the head skimmed when its off which is a waste of time doin the job.
is the car over heating or just oil in the water or water in the oil.
these cars usually give a small miss when a gasket is going.if you want to be real sure goin into a motor factors andbuy a head gasket tester simple to use it simply goes into the expansoin bottle and changes colour to let you know .316s are very popular for coolant leaks so if your just loosing coolant ,expansion bottles leak all the time and the small elbow gasket on the rear of the haed weeps all the time


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## slave1 (28 Feb 2007)

I had a head gasket replaced a few years back on what was a relatively new car, not a mechanic but from what was explained to me I recall that I got a pinhole leak in my coolant system and it all drained away which was the cause of my issue.
It was going to be expensive so I did my research on my particular car model and there was a recall on the Renault website on my particular model and one of the listed implications was possible head gasket failure - extreme implication I might add.
I brought this info to the garage and although they had already identified the coolant as the source of the problem they saw my side of things and said it was a possibility that the recall could be brought into the equation.
Result, the HG replacement was done for free under the recall.
Point of post, do a search for recall notices on your model and if you find the right dealer you may have some good news ahead.
Long shot, but still......


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## Yachtie (1 Mar 2007)

sweetpenny said:


> My mothers car started overheating last October and the local garage said it needed a new head gasket. This cost about 1,500. The car has been losing water ever since and the garage says it is nothing to be concerned about, just top it up.
> 
> I just dropped the car into the Main Dealer for them to examine it and they have said that the head gasket needs replacing.
> 
> ...


 
This sounds like a problem I had a few years ago. An idiot mechanic kept charging me a fortune and telling me to top up water / anti-freeze until I've had enough and took my my car to the authorised service. 

I was explained that engine over-heating and loss of cooling fluids is caused by broken water pump. Over-heating can damage the thermostat (hense no cabin heating) and subsequently the head gasket (oil and water start mixing and causing havoc). My car was lifted and I was shown the water pump leak. My thermostat was broken as well but fortunately head gasket was intact thanks to constant 'topping up'.


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## RainyDay (4 Mar 2007)

Have you considered getting an independent report done on the car by somebody like the AA as evidence of the need for a new HG?


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