Cost of head gasket replacement Rover 200

cowbutt

Inactive wrote: »

Why anyone would buy a Rover of any type is beyond my comprehension..:rotfl:

I felt the same way before I owned one. But after spotting the 'See also: Rover 200' line in the Parkers write-up for the Honda Concerto, I thought I'd add it to my list of models to consider. I bought a 1993 Rover 214 (K series engine) in 1999 and it did me sterling service until I got rid of it the other week. I knocked the dealer down from a screen price of £3500 to £3200 and had him replace the clutch and stereo. Since then, it's pretty much just been consumables (tyres, exhausts, brake parts, cambelt, oil). It's only let me down a couple of times (failed alternator resulting in discharged battery, shortly after I bought it, and a broken driveshaft last year). The radiator was a bit corroded and leaky when I bought it, so shortly afterwards, I had it replaced to pre-empt any overheating problems. As far as I know, it's still on the original head gasket at 92K miles and 15 years old.

If the 45 hatch design had been kept better up-to-date, and most parts were still available from Honda (maybe they still are, I didn't look into it too closely), I'd have happily bought another as mine was a practical, comfortable, cheap, reliable car.

risa_rochelle

hi ppl i have a rover 200/25 i bought this last week the seller said that spark plugs needed changin as it took a few seconds to start and you had 2 put full revs on,someone had a look and said the spark plugs were fine, now it will not start,does anyone have any ideas ?its a s reg, many thanks

jeannieblue

You have revived an old thread here.....

Not sure that is wise - and I'm not sure everyone will be helpful. Get alot of ego's and knowitalls on here. That said - you could've bought a much better car, sorry....

goldspanners

jeannieblue wrote: »

Get alot of ego's and knowitalls on here.

i do hope im not included in this remark.

even although i do know it all.:D

rizwan567

Same Old story.. but I am in despeate situation... Kindly advise

I own a Rover 400 1999 T reg and head gasket has blown away today..

I was feeling some problem with the car engine and perforamance was not good. Therefore I decided to book a interim service with the local Kiwik fit guys... The workshop is 2 miles from my home.

After having the service I drove back home and realised some smoke is coming up from the engine and water reserve box (which is filled to supply water to radiator). I refilled the reserve box and realised the water is leaking underneath the car.

I called the kiwik fit guys on the spot and told them the problem. The guy advised to drove back for the check up.

The machanic who served the car said we did nothing wrong with your water system. our job is to fix the car not to break them. There is a problem with your water pump..that is why it is leaking. I am not satisfied with this statement of his because he did not quote any such problem in the checklist he provided after service. He advised to get waterpump replaced. I was not satisifed but unwillingly I drove off the kiwik fit workshop. But just after driving for 1 mile, car finally broke down. I called my local machenic and he said that gasket is gone. Water and Oil is mixed. He gave me the quote of £500 to put the car back on road. I spoke with another machenic and he gave me the quote of £400 (including new timing belt, water pump, skimming of engine).

I went to kiwik fit for the service for good but it has made the condition worse. What I am thinking is that car did not have any water pump problem during or before service. It is just the after service (and after 2 mile of drive back home) that it had developed this problem. I am very sure that the kiwik fit machenic had definately applied improper procedure during the service due to which it developed this problem as soon as I drove on road.

I read the other post in this thread which states as:

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Just as a very important pointer, if you ever replace the coolant yourself, never never never use neat coolant and top up with water. The coolant should be mixed to the correct concentration BEFORE being added to the engine, failure to do this can lead to serious damage to your cooling system

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I think the mechanic has used the neat coolant instead of mixing it with water to the correct concentration............... What do you think guys???????

Was it just my bad luck that car brokekdown straight after service or it was the mistake of mechanic????

If it was the mistake of the mechanic, then please advise me with the technical points which I can rely on to make sure that it was the mistake of mechanic. Moreover what is the best way to launch a complaint againt the company for compensation (if it is the mistake of mechanic 'if applicable')

eagerly awating feedback

Thanks

Wig

It all depends what work you paid Kwik Fit to do. List the jobs they did and charged you for then we will be in a better position to comment.

It is more sensible to mix coolant before adding to the engine, but unless there is something weird about a Rover engine, I can't see why putting in neat coolant then topping up with water will be such a big problem, as long as you know what you are doing, there should be no problem.

If Kwik fit worked on your timing belt and the timing belt is tensioned with the waterpump pulley, then there is reason to blame KwikFit for the failed waterpump seal.

First tell us EXACTLY what work was paid for at Kwik Fit?

rizwan567

Wig, much appreciated such a speedy response

It was just a normal interim service. Details can be seen from http://www.kwik-fit.com/whats-included-in-my-service.asp

I need a suggestion from you; one of my mates told me that even if you get cars head gasket fixed however the engine will still do missing in future (i.e not run smoothly). What do you suggest? Is it true? He also suggested it is better if you can replace the whole engine by finding a used one from any scrap yard.

I bought this car for £800 in April 2008. Is it a good idea to get the car fixed for 400 pounds, use it for 4 months(around 1200 miles) and sell it off for the price of around £600-£650? Or it (£400) is a risky investment and higher are the chances that car can breakdown within a month or so. OR it is better to scrap it and buy a new one (my budget is extremely tight)

One more thing, I just discovered this web site while i was searching for some solution of my problem http://www.steelseal.co.uk/ they claim to fix the blown gasket with their product, please go through their web site and do not forget to read the testimonials.. Do you think, that this product could be useful in my case? Shall I try? What does your techncial expertise say?

Thanks in advance for your valuable time and suggestion.

The car breakdown has made my x-mas bad in terms of my finaces. This year is definately turing out to crunch mas instead of xmas. I will have to cut down boxing day shopping by at least 70% now... so sad for me..

Wig

Ok, so Kwik Fit did a basic service. Whilst it is a coincidence that your leak happened just after service, I don't see anything on the list that would have caused the leak to happen. (except **below) Someone earlier in the thread said changing coolant can speed up the onset of a coolant leak failure. So this could have been a factor, but it is NOT something you could blame Kwik Fit for, whatever damage there was in your car, it was there BEFORE KwikFit. I personally have never heard of this idea of changing coolant speeding up the failure, but I only imagine it is something to do with the flushing/cleaning effect of the new coolant, washing away some of the dirt, which inturn then leads to a weak seal, leading to a leak.

It may have been the case that your car had a slight leak to begin with.

** Ok I just thought of something they might have got wrong. If your engine requires bleeding after a coolant change, and they did not bleed it properly, this would definately be the cause of the leak, the trapped air, would have increased the pressure & temp, and blown the seals. Proving this happened is always going to be a problem.

BTW, you should always watch your water temp gauge when driving the car, it is likely yours went high before it started steaming. It is easy to miss, (and I think should be an audible alarm on all cars) But after having a service/coolant change, you should have been watching the temperature very closely. and switch off the engine the moment it started to go too high, and then release some of the pressure on the coolant reservoir cap.\

Steelseal, sounds like rubbish to me, don't waste your money.

If it was my car, I would be looking for a mechanic that was cheap, and knows what he is doing, not easy - I know- but IMHO you should be able to get a HeadGasket done for less than £200 (with parts costs on top, eg. HG set, timing Belt & Water pump. There may be no need for skimming. Skimming would only be needed if you drove it too far when hot and with no water.

What town are you in?

And in future, don't go to Kwik Fit.

rizwan567

Dear Wig.. thanks for your response and advise.

Temprature gauge was always in control. Before the service and after the service, and even just before minutes car broke down. The needle never went above 60% of total 100% available. I am quite sure that temp needle was not faulty.

One thing is sure that car was not witout the water, as I kept topping it up the last day before leaving home and before leaving kwik fit.

Quarter of a mile before the car broke down, i felt like pick of the car is decreasing and car stopped on the roundabout (that time white smoke was coming from the exhaust). After consistantly trying for 1-2 mintues car started and I drove past the roundabout, after 0.15 car finally stopped and never started again. This is where I called the mechanic and he told me that Gasket is gone. The moment I realised the problem while I was driving, I was in no position to park the car (on round about and then on double yellow line) to cool it down.

Wig, Kwik fit guy said that you have a fault in water pump... Is it the water pump which caused the headgasket blown away? If I had a water pump replaced would this have avoided the trouble of gasket OR it was inevitable, mater of time and had to happen sooner or later.

I was in definate mind to use steel seal as I am in desprate cost saving situation however wont go for it now in the light of your advise.

I live in Ilford (Essex). Ilford is in outer skirts of East London.

Wig

A broken water pump, would cause headgasket to fail, yes, but usually shows an increase in temp gauge before failure. Depending where Rover positioned the temperature switch on the engine, I can see that if it is positioned in a stupid place then the broken water pump would stop the hot water from circulating towards the temp switch, and that may be why you saw no rise in temperature.

You say you topped up with water..... Was this before the service?
How often were you topping with water, for how long had you been doing this?
Only water, no coolant?

Or were you talking about after driving away from KwikFit and it started to boil over, then you added water before returning to Kwik Fit? Where did you get the water from? How much did you add?

You say you topped with water before leaving Kwik Fit ???? Was this immediately after the service, or after returning to Kwik Fit after the car had started steaming, and they asked you to bring it back.

You had no way of knowing the water pump was broken, before the kwik fit guy told you it was broken. Knowing it was broken, you should not have driven the car, but the HG might have already failed, depending how long the water pump had been broken.