Mechanic legal advice needed

SNes73

i think my main point is how can i give a mechanic a working car with a bit of smoke coming from the exhaust to a car which i suspect the engine to be in bits and has cost me £880 + new car and is looking like i have to pay someone to recover my car to bring it back home.

He won't tell me what company skimmed the head ( so i'm thinking that never got done)

He won't tell me who done the pressure test

And he has no receipts for any of the parts he has claimed to use.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

spacey2012 wrote: »

You blue the block with the head off.
Which is part of the process, off comes the head and the block face gets blued and inspected, if that appears ok, the head goes away for a pressure test and Skimming.

Sounds to me they might have "skipped" the head skimming, check the gasket size, they have sometimes a tag with thickness on.
If it is a rover the cylinder liners come loose and expand breaking the gasket.

clearly have no understanding of the K series engine. the liners don't come loose at all, what ever pub or garage told you that avoid like the plague! because he's told you a fat load of BS.


the liner can only move once the head has been removed, they cannot expand! or move out of tolerance unless the head has already been removed, one touch of the crank with head off causes the pistons to push up the liners as theres nothing stopping them moving upward with piston movement many garages will used the old headbolts some nuts and washers and lock them down when the head is removed so the pistons can be cleaned or pistons rings replaced.


I don't even think were talking about a rover here anyways.

SNes73

It's not a rover.

Mark_Mark

SNes73 wrote: »

It's not a rover.

Is it a case of keep guessing or are you prepared to disclose the make and model of the car? It's a little difficult to give correct advice without the full facts.

A known fault on a common car, it would be reasonable for a decent mechanic to know how to fault find and fix. Something out of the norm, could it be argued the mechanic should know his limitations?

The third one is, was it reasonable he missed it first time round.

You asked for legal advice and the best place to get that is from someone qualified to give it. A judge won't like you quoting Joey from the forum and Fred from the pub as case law.

SNes73

Toyota previa 1998

forgotmyname

Wait for more arguments. Does that have wet/dry liners

Which engine?

patman99

On a car that age, I would have tried the steel-seal or k-seal first. After all, I doubt the car is worth more than £700.

CrazyRed

I seem to remember reading somewhere that some of that type of vehicle suffers cracked heads, causing the exact symptoms you are describing.

I THINK it's the 2.2 diesel, but it was a while ago I read the article, so I could be wrong.

Have a look on the Toyota Owners Forums and search there to see if any other owners have had the same problem with the same engine/vehicle.

In terms of your ex-friend, I would think that research, and then a small claims case would be appropriate if the research shows that a reasonably competent mechanic would have been able to correctly diagnose the issue and should have resolved it first time around.

goonarmy

He didnt put the rings on. Alarm bells at that point.

fivetide

Honest John says a very durable car that can do moon miles no problem - provided you change to coolant every two years otherwise... yep head gasket issues.


http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/toyota/previa-1990/?section=good