Hello all I hope everone is good. It has been a while since I have posted here.

I did something stupid I went on the motoway with no breakdown cover opps and you guessed it my car over heated and broke down. I got a recovery company to come and get me. In total it costed 130 to take me only a couple of miles GRRRR.I've learnt my lesson and I will be getting cover for the future.

The damage


So I took the car to the Mechanic today to see what the problem was. And he told me I blew my gasket? i'm not 100% sure what is i'm kinda still learning but he actually quoted me 500 to get it fixed ? why is it so much, I asked him if he could just fix the pipe which exploded and leave it like that. I just think it's a joke that something could cost so much. So now i'm unsure as to what I should do with my black seicento lol . It's an S reg and only done 68k. Do any you have any suggestions?

I asked the Mechanic if I could still drive it, he said yes but not on motoways.

Did you get the car home? If not, he might have been playing the "hold the car hostage saying it'll instantly die on restart & charge what I like to fix it" card.

If you got it home ring around because I'm sure 500 quid is a massive ripoff.
It costs maybe £40-60 go get the head skimmed and another £20 for a new head gasket.

It's not exactly hard to take off the head either (hell I did it with no previous engine knowledge quite easily with a breaker bar & sockets + Haynes manual) so I don;t know why he's quoating you a prices equalling to changing the head gasket on a fiat Coupe .

P.S. Oh and go to local fiat for pipes, guess it's a rad pipe? Easy fix.

isits a fire engine in your car ? find out!!! if it is head will not need skimming, i boiled my cinq sporting to within an inch of its life went to local engine man {bradford grinders}did'nt want my money to skim head,said would be ok these engines{fire} are bullet proof took it apart put back together runs fine £22 head gasket £16 for oil , if you need any advice for DIY just pm me i am a hgv fitter by trade done cars aswell {mine and friends 18 years at it}

I don't know my friend. what actually happend on the day was in the morning I saw that my engine coolant was low and looked redish. So i topped us the levels with normal water, then as I was driving and little red light came on it was lil a stick in water? the icon furthest to the right. Then the car started slowing down and eventaully it stopped. I opened the front and steam was coming out everywhere. The car would then not start, so I waited 20mins and then it started again I then thought it had just over heated and as I was driving it cut out on me. I then waited another 20mins it then started again and I was driving this time the pipe near the engine just exploded everywhere. Really weird.

To be honest i'll take your adivce and try and call around and see what I get. But there's no way I could afford 500 pounds to fix that. So I think it might be the end of my 600 dayz

If all you did was blow the headgasket then 500 pounds is too expensive. However your car clearly lost water somewhere so a new radiator, or waterpump or both will be on the menu in all likelyhood.

The warning lights are there for a reason, they come on, the driver stops, the car doesn't get majorly wrecked. If you drove until the car wouldn't go anymore, and then let it cool off and drove it some more it is not outside the realms of possibility that you seized the engine, or damaged it so badly that the engine is now a door stop. You need to ask the garage what they are proposing to charge £500 for. From your description it may just be replacement engine time.

Shenzo said:

I don't know my friend. what actually happend on the day was in the morning I saw that my engine coolant was low and looked redish. So i topped us the levels with normal water, then as I was driving and little red light came on it was lil a stick in water? the icon furthest to the right. Then the car started slowing down and eventaully it stopped. I opened the front and steam was coming out everywhere. The car would then not start, so I waited 20mins and then it started again I then thought it had just over heated and as I was driving it cut out on me. I then waited another 20mins it then started again and I was driving this time the pipe near the engine just exploded everywhere. Really weird.

To be honest i'll take your adivce and try and call around and see what I get. But there's no way I could afford 500 pounds to fix that. So I think it might be the end of my 600 dayz

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if its only the head gasket gone, then its a simple job

get the head skimmed, and a new gasket kit! you can even do it yourself if youve got a haynes! and nowhere near £500! you can buy awhole engine for that!

if its more then that, i dont know without more info on whats actaully gone pop, but in the worse case senario, you fit a new enging, and thats still not £500

in the worse case senario, you fit a new enging, and thats still not £500

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Well, not a new engine, but one from the classifieds or a scrappy.

fingers99 said:

Well, not a new engine, but one from the classifieds or a scrappy.

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new to them

but yes, a used engine is what i ment

Hello all,


Ok I have just come back from the mechanics and asked for the problem in detail and basically he said that the Cylinder head gasket is blown. He said he would do it for a total of 450 now, because I paid for the radiator hose top. I am going to call around a few garages and see what kind of prices they say. If all are near 500 pounds then I think I might just have to sell it. When I drove the car home loadsss of smoke was coming out the back? why is that? could that be another problem?

I might set up an Ebay page and see if anyone would be interested in it.


Any advice would be much appreciated!

my head gasket went on my cinq at 60k, the engine ceased up, no life at all, it cost me 500 to get done but that was also replacing oil seals that had blown previously,

getting a another engine is ok, maybe if you want a bigger one but you still have to get it fitted,

i'm no good at mechanics so i let a local garage do my head gasket, head skimmed aswell, runs a beauty,

nath

Shenzo said:

I did something stupid I went on the motoway with no breakdown cover opps and you guessed it my car over heated and broke down. I got a recovery company to come and get me. In total it costed 130 to take me only a couple of miles GRRRR.I've learnt my lesson and I will be getting cover for the future.

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Theres a sticky in the insurance section which i have made, which tells you about breakdown cover and the policies avaialble have a nosey

sorry but £500 quid sound like a rip off to me i think you are right about phoning around and see if you can get it done cheaper. £500 pound sounds well steep. if skimming is not involved then it definately shouldn't cost that kind of money. do you know anyone who knows of a honest mechanic(yeah i know it is a rarity) then they should tell you exactly what work is involved and hopefully do it cheaper. good luck.