Second Hand Car From Private Seller

Gavin83

It's quite possible that an owner wouldn't know the head gasket was failing. It's not a part that necessarily displays any symptoms until in the advanced stages. I honestly think you'd have a hard time convincing a judge they knew about this problem and it doesn't sound like he'd be cooperative on his own.

Personally I wouldn't fight this but if you choose to I wish you the best of luck.

arcon5

Old_Ben wrote: »

The fact that he lied when questioned and hung up on me when I called???

'No judge, I didn't know anything about it. I'm no engineer, I don't even fully know what the head gasket does, let alone how to tell if it needs repairing. I hung up the phone because as far as i'm concerned I described the car to the best of my ability and gave her the opportunity to look it over.'

Kinda hard to prove the contrary.

When you buy private, you buy cheap. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

s_b

whilst i agree its madness to buy one of these vehicles privately and not pay £250 for a qualified proper independant inspection
i also agree taking the thermostat out is the first thing you would do in the desert if h/g gone and you needed to reduce some pressure

will it stand in court
let the OP go there with the backing of his new found mech friend

im tempted to have as my avatar
serves you right because you dont keep local businesses in business because you deny us profit because in this country its seen as dirty

but i couldnt be bothered

CKhalvashi

arcon5 wrote: »

How does a removed thermostat in itself make it unroadworthy?

This was what I was thinking.

On half our older company stuff, we've got rev counters, odographs and fuel level/temp level dials that don't work. The cars are roadworthy and are kept as such.

HGF on a Rangey, especially the 4.4 engines are rare. One of the company '05' plate Discoveries has just over 300k and is still going strong. (Same engine)

CK

Slowhand

CKhalvashi wrote: »

This was what I was thinking.

On half our older company stuff, we've got rev counters, odographs and fuel level/temp level dials that don't work. The cars are roadworthy and are kept as such.

HGF on a Rangey, especially the 4.4 engines are rare. One of the company '05' plate Discoveries has just over 300k and is still going strong. (Same engine)

CK

What older company stuff?

CKhalvashi

Slowhand wrote: »

What older company stuff?

6 Octavias, 3 Passat Estates, a BMW 530d Estate, 2 A6 2.7 Avants, 2 Discos (one petrol, one diesel), 3 Mondeo Estates and 4 5-seat S-Maxes (3x 2.0TDCi, 1x 2.5), all older than '07' plate (everything else is '09' or newer)

All of the above are getting to huge mileages now.

CK

forgotmyname

Dont take your original garage guy along to give evidence.

How does running on LPG or having a kit fitted but tested on petrol affect a compression test?

You may get different results on gas and petrol but you will still get the same variation if a head gasket had gone.

Several mondeo's have had the garage saying HG gone when in fact its been the oil cooler corroding internally. Mixing the fluids.

Do you have the results of the garage tests?

Hung up when called. Maybe they thought here we go a buyer that wanted a RR and now decides he doesnt want it or cannot afford to run it.

2002? So its 10 years old... How much did it cost then £40k+.

had a few older ones, But before they went all high tech and when i could do the work
myself.

Would i buy a 10 year old one now. Not if i had to pay garage prices.

I would buy an older pre electric everything one in mint condition.