Head Gasket gone how much to repair

magicmaria

Hi

Just been informed by the garage the head gasket has gone on the car

W Reg Vauxhall Omega does anyone have a rough idea how much this will cost to repair - garage can't give us a price till later on this afternoon

thanks

rdwarr

The gasket set for a 3.0 V6 is available for around £65 (smaller engines will be a bit cheaper). Other than that it's the cost of labour which will vary from place to place. It's about a day's work if you're lucky. I'd get a few quotes on this.

barisax_al

Whilst the gasket may only cost £65 the labour in somewhere like an AA service centre is generally £60 per hour or more, so It will definately be several hundred pounds unless you have a mechanic in the family.

delorean_2

Mine went on my megane not long after I bought it, the showroom didn't want to know about it, even though it went during the warranty period.

All they offered was to get it done at a low rate.

Think they charged about £150 all in.

chilli_dog

I dont want to worry you but,

I have a 53 Astra 1.6 petrol, and the head gasket went on that. I dont no if there are varing degrees of gasket failure, as you can tell im no mechanic.

My head had to be removed, sent to an engineers to be skimmed, then refitted to the car with new gasket and whatever needs to go in with that. There was a service included in this as well though, total price £900, i kid you not. Luckily the car was just under 60k and Vauxhaull paid a large portion of it.

I live in Stoke and have to use a Vauxhaul dealer in Crewe (Cheshire)

Martin

delorean_2

chilli_dog wrote:

My head had to be removed

Bloody hell that's a bit extreme isn't it!!?

chilli_dog

extreme and painful. now look like frankenstien

skylineboy2002

Genrally speaking normal gasket (head) sets are price 50-80..

if you have a performance car this can soon climb up for extra speical ones (group A or N racing ones) that will support more power, and thus stress etc.

i know this as my dad has had a few ford RS cars, and cosworths before..

these uprated ones can cost £300!!!!

but yes it all depends on a hourly rate. the standard time (so ive been told by a machanic that deals in mainly french cars) is 9.5 hours...

again more if you have something a bit specialised. im not too sure on normal hourly rates but garages i know of (being into RS cars) charge between £25-45/p hour)

bearing in mind that whatever car you have the head will need to be skimmed to ensure a nice surface to seal with the gasket.

this repair sadly is common and a big money maker for a garage.

all i can say is try and keep up with oil changes.

a dead giveaway that your gasket is gone is any of the below:

1. water in the oil....
2. oil in the water tanks (often callled header tanks)
3. oil seeping out of the seal between cylinder head or engine block..
4. keep a look out for a sludgy/gunky oil or water cap as mentioned above.

hope that little lot helps.

ps. im a newbie here

skylineboy2002

oops. forgot some bits.

theres the gasket you need. (obviously)

then there the bolts (not recomended to re use the bolts) these bolts then need torqueing to whatever spec.

then again depending on the garage/car. you may need another visit back in so many months or miles to re-torque them to ensure they are ok.
as sometimes you only tighten them so far and then tighten more later on...

aand again obvioulsy all the hardware for the bolts (screw/nuts etc)

and usually an oil change... but this is just for info, i doubt many garages give you a break down of each nut/bolt and price... as many people dont need that info, this just want a car fixed...