Corsa V reg 1L 12v

[zzzzztt]

hi,

i bought this car for my son about 3 months ago. he passed his test a month later and has been driving it fairly short distances since.

2 weeks ago, he came to pick me up locally and on the way home it was overheating. we got home (maybe 1.5 miles later) and left it. next morning, we looked in header tank which was more or less empty. rad is a sealed unit, so we filled the header tank.

he drove the car, a short distance. next day he had to fill the tank again. i noticed water on the ground, like a small leak, from under where the header is.

booked it in to a mechanic for a service and fix.

he replaced rad, thermostat, fan switch and header cap. he kept the car for an extra day, did drive it apparently and said it was fixed, knowing my son was going to drive to cornwall 2 days later (i am in surrey).

when my son brought the car home he said it smelt like burning, but it had had new brakes too... and you know cars smell funny after being fiddled with http://www.kelsey-forums.co.uk/yabbfiles/cmm/Templates/Forum/default/wink.gif.

he set off for cornwall and rang me 4 hours later to say the temp needle had suddenly shot up to the red and the engine had died. RAC took him to garage (only roadside http://www.kelsey-forums.co.uk/yabbfiles/cmm/Templates/Forum/default/sad.gif). we drove down to lend him daughters car.

garage say a piston has melted and so has thermostat, head gasket is kaput so basically i need a new engine. (btw, they quoted a tow home at £500!!). the repair could cost up to £900! (more than the car almost).

what i want to know, if possible, is, was the original mechanic negligent in any way? can this "suddenly" happen? could he have "predicted" gasket problems after having fixed most of the rest of the collant system? what does a pressure test do and is or should it be mandatory when fixing the collant/ overheating problems? would that have shown up a fault elsewhere?

sorry for long post, but i just dont really know what to do. http://www.kelsey-forums.co.uk/yabbfiles/cmm/Templates/Forum/default/undecided.gif do you think the mechanic should take some responsibiltiy in recovering and fixing the car?

thank you.

rosie http://www.kelsey-forums.co.uk/yabbfiles/cmm/Templates/Forum/default/smiley.gif

[mervyn11]

Sounds to me like the 'mechanic' just replaced everything that he thought might be wrong except what was probably wrong in the first place and that was a faulty head gasket.
Unfortunately I think you are going to have a hell of a job proving it one way or another.
If you paid by credit card you might be able to claim your money back for the repairs you paid for but not the breakdown recovery costs.
Sorry to be a bit negative

[zzzzztt]

thanks mervyn,

i would like to say i trust the mechanic but history is starting to ring warning bells. very recently he diagnosed my car (an a class) as having a starter motor problem. he changed the starter motor and we now find its the ring gear. his explanation was to start with the least expensive repair but of course, in long run, thats false economy as the engine (and labour costs) have to be re done.

i do feel, if it was a faulty head gasket, a pressure test would have revealed it after the other repair was done, am i right?

i also had a car that was losing water and same garage (different mechanic) replaced rad, as a small hole was found. it still lost water, so the water pump was suspected. i said, what about the head gasket, could it have been damaged. i was told, sorry, until new pump, cant do pressure test. i said, i wasnt prepared to pay for pump (another £300) to find its the head gasket - so i part exchanged the car - end of!

cant do that this time unfortunately :mad:

[mervyn11]

The trouble is these days a so called 'mechanic' is no such thing he is a 'fitter' of new parts until he gets lucky and replaces the bit that was broken.
And who pays ??? Yep you do.
He should have identified a faulty head gasket first off the same with the faulty ring gear.....should have identified that before fitting a new starter motor.
IMHO I think its probably time to find a new garage for your repairs ask around your friends and go on personal recommendation thats the best way.
Dont like to mention it but a bit of male backup is helpful sometimes !!!

[zzzzztt]

hahaha! careful, mervyn, i can be quite formidable when required and having knowledge helps, which is why i am asking here :).

no one likes the idea of being screwed over and we have been using this guy for quite sometime, but, tbh and now i am thinking about it in more detail, its really been for services, which i guess worked ok but now that real stuff has had to be done, things are not being done.

my daughter said ages ago that he was crap!! maybe she had an intuition on it that i didnt pick up til too late <sigh>.

[mervyn11]

The bottom line is the corsa is not really worth spending any more money on I reckon.
Best thing to do is to have a look around for another cheap second hand motor........and a new garage !!!!