Head Gasket

[bentley]

I've got a Fiat Panda, just over three years old, 18,000 miles, bought new from Fiat in Exeter. I've had it serviced yearly by Fiat and have just had a service one week ago. Since then I noticed the car was overheating slightly, by two or three gradations on the temp gauge, but always returning to normal. Took it into the Fiat garage this morning and was told that I needed a new head gasket, £700. What do you think ? Is this possible in such a new car and isn't strange that the problems started immediately after the service ???

 

[Bushboy]

Seems strange that a car of that age and milage would blow its head gasket, but not unheard of.

The overheating could be caused by many different things but the fact that the car has been overheating could have caused the head gasket to fail. It may have been something as simple as a stuck thermostat.

Best bet would be to get a second opinion from an independant garage and see what they think.

 

[steviesei]

not good , i had a similar problem years ago with a metro , mine was only 18 months old at the time, and after phoning rover they eventually replaced the engine at their cost, if i were you i,d contact fiat head office and COMPLAIN , even if it overheated due to a fault , it has been serviced by fiat dealer remember , they may repair it as a good will clause , (all auto manufacturers have a good will clause) no harm in trying even a stat should last a little bit longer than 3 years if that was the cause, come on with todays advances in technology , just my opinion of course good luck

 

[bentley]

Thanks for the advice. It is just very strange that when I brought the car home from the service that I noticed that the fan stayed on for a few minutes when I turned off the engine. I thought that maybe I hadn't noticed it happening before, but now I'm pretty sure it never happened before ! Do you think it could be something that was done or not done at the service ? Also the temperature gauge had never gone over the middle mark before. (In other words I don't think that the car ever over-heated until after the service.)

 

[bentley]

Just to let you know that Fiat have come up trumps. They're going to pay for all repairs ! They have replaced the head gasket but are still working on the car, trying to find out why the fan is running all the time.