PLEASE HELP how much does It cost to change head gasket in vauxhall astra 8v

Weirdlittleman

petrolhead69 wrote: »

I think you will find the clue is in the name of the website you are on.
not just amateur mechanics, but there are plent of small garages that would do the full job parts and all for £500ish. The 8v astra is one of the easiest cars going to do a head gasket on and the parts prices quoted are a bit inflated. £125 for a cam belt kit !!!!!!. I'll give you a clue, it's not the 16v engine, no plastic tensioners included with the kit, just the belt. £9 retail last time I bought one.

Yet other people think the £125 is about right.
That means you get all the other parts for £75 does it. Unlikely.

The fact is its all good if you know someone in the trade but a lot of people don't and the view of what some friendly mechanic or amatuer mechanic could do it for is no good.

I will also hazard a bet all these £400-500 jobs are the ones where 2 weeks later the person complains it has gone again.

Head Gaskets are major jobs and the prices reflect this. I would always be concerned of a mechanic who came in at circa £400 for a head gasket unless it was qualified as best case scenario.

somech

from a skilled self employed mechanics point of view its an 8 valve single ohc engine.
there is no cambelt kit for this engine just a belt (the tensioner is the water pump)
i would do this job easily for £400 inc cam belt (also many other garages would aswell)
water pump
head bolts
oil and filter
antifreeze
head skim and pressure test
head gasket set
and give 12 months/12000 mile warranty its only 4 hours work

Hammyman

I concur. £400 is a reasonable price for a non-dealer garage. Any less and you need to question whether the head has been skimmed and crack tested and whether a pressure test has been done.

As somech said, change the water pump which also acts as the tensioner.

petrolhead69

Thats what I remember from the 8v vauxhalls, no tensioner or idlers to be changed so where the hell did they pull the figure of £125 for a belt kit from. that rings alarm bells. last time I did an 8v astra (1.4 IIRC), 2005 I think it was so inflation on one hand, but discount for older parts so wont be too far off but it was £9 for the belt, £16 for the waterpump, £15 stretch bolts, £19 head set, £4 oil filter, £17 oil, £6 anti freeze, £9 spark plugs £55 to get the head skimmed and 3 angle valve seats cut as I done a bit of porting and polishing to the head since I had it off anyway. that was retail prices from my local factors as I had no transport to go to maccess to get trade prices.
Find a good local independant mechanic with good recommendations from people you trust and you should get it done for under £500 warrantied without resorting to these "usual amatuer mechanics" who talk tosh that I hear about these days.

That old one of mine is still on the go, although seeing the rust on it I doubt it has long left.

skiddlydiddly

The labour seems high, but then labour charges vary a lot from pretty a reasonable £25+ an hour local garages to obscene £70+ an hour at the main stealers.I know the stealers have higher overheads but are you really getting 2-300% better quality of work?