I have owned a Punto (2001,Y reg) for a little under a year. The car appears to have been well looked after as it came with full service history and a lot of money had been spent. Nevertheless over the last year I have had to replace the exhaust (blowing), I had to replace the oil sump (major oil leak), windscreen wipers (failed suddenly) and the bonnet catch jammed, Quite a few problems in just 1 year and the clutch also has bad judder (I understand a common problem).
Today I took it for it's MOT test and before going checked the engine levels and lights (I'm no mechanic so thats really the limit of my knowledge). I took it to Kwik Fit (yes I know....) because they seemed to be the cheapest and had my previous car MOT'd there the previous year without problem.
However they called me up to say the during the emissions test the engine boiled over and coolant was leaking out. They told me that the radiator was only hot on one side and one of the pipes was boiling the other cold and this was therefore likely a problem with the temperature sensor or water pump and would cost "£60-£70" to put right and told me I also needed new rear tyres and new front brake pads and disks. They asked me if I was OK to have the tyres and brakes done which I was but when they called to say the car was ready they told me they don't deal with engine problems and to take the car elswhere to have that fixed. However they neglected to tell me that the car had "a major oil leak" (again?!!) which was reported on their test form and had water in one of the rear light clusters.
I took it to another garage I have used before who looked at the cooling problem and said it was likely the head gasket. They did manage to run the emissions test without it over heating (by putting the heaters on full) but said it failed on emissions and would likely need a new lamda sensor and cataltyic converter as well and that in their opinion it was not economic to repair. From the service history however the car failed an MOT 18 months ago on emissions and had the lamba sensor and catalytic converter replaced (along with the clutch, clutch arm, 2 * clutch bushes and starter motor), subsequently passing the MOT. I would expect these components to last more than 18 months / 12,000 miles!
I have never been aware of the car overheating before and have very recently used the car for both fairly long motorway trips (over 100 miles) and stop/start town driving with no overheating problems as well as on steep hills with passengers in the back. However on driving to the super market and back this evening (only 4 miles in total) when I got out the car there was a bad smell which I have never noticed before.
Kwik Fit admitted that they were not checking the dash board when revving the engine for the emission test saying they were looking at the computer screen and so would not have noticed if the temperature warning light came on. I am wondering if by them letting the engine get so hot it boiled over they have damaged the head gasket.
Any one got any advice. Is scrapping or trading in the only viable option?
Today I took it for it's MOT test and before going checked the engine levels and lights (I'm no mechanic so thats really the limit of my knowledge). I took it to Kwik Fit (yes I know....) because they seemed to be the cheapest and had my previous car MOT'd there the previous year without problem.
However they called me up to say the during the emissions test the engine boiled over and coolant was leaking out. They told me that the radiator was only hot on one side and one of the pipes was boiling the other cold and this was therefore likely a problem with the temperature sensor or water pump and would cost "£60-£70" to put right and told me I also needed new rear tyres and new front brake pads and disks. They asked me if I was OK to have the tyres and brakes done which I was but when they called to say the car was ready they told me they don't deal with engine problems and to take the car elswhere to have that fixed. However they neglected to tell me that the car had "a major oil leak" (again?!!) which was reported on their test form and had water in one of the rear light clusters.
I took it to another garage I have used before who looked at the cooling problem and said it was likely the head gasket. They did manage to run the emissions test without it over heating (by putting the heaters on full) but said it failed on emissions and would likely need a new lamda sensor and cataltyic converter as well and that in their opinion it was not economic to repair. From the service history however the car failed an MOT 18 months ago on emissions and had the lamba sensor and catalytic converter replaced (along with the clutch, clutch arm, 2 * clutch bushes and starter motor), subsequently passing the MOT. I would expect these components to last more than 18 months / 12,000 miles!
I have never been aware of the car overheating before and have very recently used the car for both fairly long motorway trips (over 100 miles) and stop/start town driving with no overheating problems as well as on steep hills with passengers in the back. However on driving to the super market and back this evening (only 4 miles in total) when I got out the car there was a bad smell which I have never noticed before.
Kwik Fit admitted that they were not checking the dash board when revving the engine for the emission test saying they were looking at the computer screen and so would not have noticed if the temperature warning light came on. I am wondering if by them letting the engine get so hot it boiled over they have damaged the head gasket.
Any one got any advice. Is scrapping or trading in the only viable option?
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and don't be scared of telling a garage you're going elsewhere for a 2nd opinion! 
