10 year old vectra - head gasket gone

cyclonebri1

The point of the thread, and I see a few others on the same wave length iis that a 10 year old Vectra isn't worse much more than the quoted repair price of £650 or so, but get it done for £300 and it becomes viable;)

custardy

its a tricky one,TBH i would carefully consider if its worth fixing
ive had a couple of vecs and TBH didnt really rate them over the Mk3 cavs which i thought was a good car
you are really looking at paying most of its value in repairs but if you say spent £800=-£1k on another car you could have more problems with that.its never easy with older cars and this sort of price of repair

cyclonebri1

custardy wrote: »

its a tricky one,TBH i would carefully consider if its worth fixing
ive had a couple of vecs and TBH didnt really rate them over the Mk3 cavs which i thought was a good car
you are really looking at paying most of its value in repairs but if you say spent £800=-£1k on another car you could have more problems with that.its never easy with older cars and this sort of price of repair

My sentiments entirely. I was in the same position, had a g reg sri cav then a L reg rdtop sri cav,(this was after an 1800 and a 2ltr mk2 sri). Then I bought a 2ltr Vectra.

So heavy and gutless in comparison and the only reason I kept it 8 years was that it was the 1st car I had bought nearly new, and it proved faultless during that time, 3years later and the not to distant buyer tells me it's still going strong:T

somech

head skim is a must also pressure test if no obvious sign on the gasket

like i said not worth doing a s&%$ job:)

cyclonebri1

somech wrote: »

head skim is a must also pressure test if no obvious sign on the gasket

like i said not worth doing a s&%$ job:)

And like I said it's not worth spemding £1000 on a £600 car

somech

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

And like I said it's not worth spemding £1000 on a £600 car

agree to a point but aslo not worth spending £300 if it fails again in a few weeks/months

LandyAndy

I skimmed a 6-cylinder Nissan head, by hand, at home using grinding paste and a sheet of plate glass. Worked a treat.

cyclonebri1

somech wrote: »

agree to a point but aslo not worth spending £300 if it fails again in a few weeks/months

Then we have grounds to agree, :money:

bordercars

did a diesel berlingo my self, not hard cambelt kit , water pump and gasket around £100. didnt bother getting the head skimmed as it had taken no heat. 3 months later 1 broken leg and the head needed doing again, had to send to garage, they bought new gasket and belt had the head skimmed all work guaranteed £600. within a year it was scrapped.

SO unless you get it done right dont bother, and even then bear in mind other things can still go wrong. you say youve got 5k how about a new motor you can still get the scrapage deal making your old tub worth 2 grand

Soubrette

Thanks everyone for your thoughts

We've decided to repair, unfortunately of the 5 local garages, 3 won't do it at all (basically mot and tyre type places), one is our original quote of £630 and the other garage quoted £700.

The reasons we've decided to repair are as follows:

The car has been fairly reliable so far and although I take the point about trusting the mechanics assessment, he has said nothing else looks like it needs imminent repairs. It has also passed its MOT first time. I am aware that past performance is no indication of future performance though

It's had to look for a new car when we don't actually have one to visit cars for sale. So we are going to keep this one for 18 months then start looking to buy another one, we lose out on any scrappage but it means we can be more considered in our purchase as well as buy a better car with more money. It also means we have a definite plan now rather than

We've just replaced some of the tyres so it would be nice to get some wear out of those.

To all those who have done your own repairs :T Unfortunately OH and myself are DIY don'ts, we have problems even hanging curtain poles straight so for us self repair is not an option

Thanks for all your thoughts - let's hope we can squeeze another 18 months to 2 years and get some trade in value for the car.

Sou