Hi,
I've come here because I am feed-up. My first car has turned into a money pit, and this was before the head gasket broke (if it wasn't broken in the first place). I’m gutted because I was defrauded by the dealer who essentially sold me scrap (I have the paper to prove it). I bought the car 4 months ago. Now it will use up half it value in repairing and servicing.
I'm a first time driver so I don't know that much mechanically (learning by the minute though, http://http://auto.howstuffworks.com/ is a great help)
I need some help and advice on what to expect and what to do.
The punto engine overheated on the road about 2 months ago and I pulled over immediately. When I checked the coolant level it was low. The engine cooled down and I manage to limp home without it overheating. I topped it up with coolant. The day after I topped it up, I noticed that it looked like coolant was leaking from the car because there would be pools of red liquid under the car when parked. I’ve had to top it up intermittently. One day the car wouldn’t start so I got it down the garage.
The garage initially mis-diagnosed the problem. They say the performed a pressure test on the cooling system and found nothing so concluded that the overheating was an air-pocket. I was charged for a £180 service. The hour after I took the car it overheated and took it back. They done a sniff test and said that the head gasket had gone (water leak into cylinder) and they would do a quotation.
The nationwide garage chain has quoted approx £820 to fix the problem. This includes the following items with approx prices:
£85, Head Set (includes head gasket)
£235, 4.8*Hours of labour
£8, Oil Filter
£28, Oil
£25, Anti freeze drain and refill
£20, cylinder head strech bolts
£110, cylinder head skim and pressure test
£250, Cambelt (i suspect this is a cambelt kit)
£60, Water pump
I have a dealer (3rd party admin) “guarantee” that I find only covers about £300 of this bill.
After looking through some post here, I feel that I have not received accurate information from the garage and warranty people. My questions are as followed:
Apologies for the long post and many thanks for any response, it is much appreciated.
I've come here because I am feed-up. My first car has turned into a money pit, and this was before the head gasket broke (if it wasn't broken in the first place). I’m gutted because I was defrauded by the dealer who essentially sold me scrap (I have the paper to prove it). I bought the car 4 months ago. Now it will use up half it value in repairing and servicing.
I'm a first time driver so I don't know that much mechanically (learning by the minute though, http://http://auto.howstuffworks.com/ is a great help)
I need some help and advice on what to expect and what to do.
The punto engine overheated on the road about 2 months ago and I pulled over immediately. When I checked the coolant level it was low. The engine cooled down and I manage to limp home without it overheating. I topped it up with coolant. The day after I topped it up, I noticed that it looked like coolant was leaking from the car because there would be pools of red liquid under the car when parked. I’ve had to top it up intermittently. One day the car wouldn’t start so I got it down the garage.
The garage initially mis-diagnosed the problem. They say the performed a pressure test on the cooling system and found nothing so concluded that the overheating was an air-pocket. I was charged for a £180 service. The hour after I took the car it overheated and took it back. They done a sniff test and said that the head gasket had gone (water leak into cylinder) and they would do a quotation.
The nationwide garage chain has quoted approx £820 to fix the problem. This includes the following items with approx prices:
£85, Head Set (includes head gasket)
£235, 4.8*Hours of labour
£8, Oil Filter
£28, Oil
£25, Anti freeze drain and refill
£20, cylinder head strech bolts
£110, cylinder head skim and pressure test
£250, Cambelt (i suspect this is a cambelt kit)
£60, Water pump
I have a dealer (3rd party admin) “guarantee” that I find only covers about £300 of this bill.
After looking through some post here, I feel that I have not received accurate information from the garage and warranty people. My questions are as followed:
- 1) Is a quotation of £800 reasonable to fix the HLX head gasket problem in the London area?
- 2) Do I need to change the water pump and cambelt (no reported problems on either, 44k on the clock) when fixing the headgasket?
- 3) Does it need a head skim? The warranty company says this is not required.
- 4) Does it cost £250 to change the HLX cambelt? It has air-con so does this impact access?
- 5) Should the problem have been spotted immediately? I now have steam coming from the exhaust that I now know indicates this specific gasket problem?
- 6) Can I drive the car for a 10-20mile trip to exchange at a dealer or get to a garage? Or would the gasket problem become immediately worse because of usage? I am not going to use the car for anything else.
- 7) Is there anything that would indicate that it is the cylinder block that has cracked or the cylinder head? How much would these scenarios cost?
Apologies for the long post and many thanks for any response, it is much appreciated.
