Head Gasket Blown- Corsa C

Ppelsb

The head gasket on my 54 reg, 53k miles 1.2 Vauxhall Corsa has 'blown' after the engine overheating due to a water pipe coming loose.

I have the car under a third party warranty company, which came with the car from the dealership I bought it from. The initial quote I received from my local garage was around £100 for new spark plugs, oil filters etc, as warranty will cover the head gasket and all of the labour. They did not start the work as they needed to agree a price with the warranty company.

After not hearing from the garage for 4 days, I phoned up, and now they are quoting me over a thousand pounds for a new water pump, timing belt, skimming, spark plugs, oil change etc, aswell as £200 for a 'pressure check'?!

I'm a 17 year old boy with a good part time job, so £1000 isn't completely out of my price range, however would be a significant set back!

Essentially, my question to the forum is, is it worth paying an extra thousand pounds to get this job done, or are the garage trying to get me to pay for work that doesn't need doing?

Also, is there any merit in pursuing the dealership that I bought it from only 3 months ago?

Thanks for reading

Wig

I wouldn't think the car is worth much more than that,

I have the same car, mine is a 53, 100,000K and never really had a problem with the engine, my car overheated once when a little plastic pipe on the top left hand side above the waterpump decided to break off, I replaced that with a brass version that vauxhall sell to replace the faulty plastic ones. Luckily I noticed my car overheating before any damage was done.

Do youself a favour, either fix the car yourself with a haynes manual, get a knowledgeable friend to help you or sell it or scrap it
You might get 150 - 200 for scrap.
If you live in Pontypridd I might help you myself.

Then use the £1,200 towards a more economical car.

Have you asked the warranty company "what gives?" I don't put much value in warranty companies, good luck with that.

[Deleted User]

Is it supped up boy racer style? (sorry to be stereotypical) but shelling out £1000 on repairs depends on how much you have already spent on mods. If not and you are sensible, I'd put the £1K towards a new car.

Also these third party warranties that used car dealers sell are worthless. I got one with a car once and after reading the full book of terms I don't think anything was actually covered.

Ppelsb

I bought the car for just over £2k, as it has v low mileage and and full service history, and for this reason I do not want to scrap or sell!

Is new water pump, thermostat and 'pressure check' just useless stuff that I do not need?

Thanks

Ppelsb

Deleted_User wrote: »

Is it supped up boy racer style? (sorry to be stereotypical) but shelling out £1000 on repairs depends on how much you have already spent on mods. If not and you are sensible, I'd put the £1K towards a new car.

Also these third party warranties that used car dealers sell are worthless. I got one with a car once and after reading the full book of terms I don't think anything was actually covered.

I spent just over a hundred on a stereo but other than that, there are no modifications.

Third party warranty are paying around £3-400 for labour and gasket, so I wouldn't say completely worthless!

Wig

Umm, you don't have a "timing belt" you have a "timing chain" and there is no need to replace that.

There's no reason to think that your water pump needs replacing - so "no" to that..... but if it did go in the near future you'd have a bill to change it then, now is the time to do it, if they are not charging an arm and a leg to change it. You should check out the price of the waterpump and ask them how much with and without waterpump change and make your decison on common sense...... seem to cost about £25 -
£35 on ebay, although there is a firstline one for £120, don't see why the price for that is so much more.

There's no way that you need a new thermostat, at a push, you will need new thermostat gasket, if it gets taken off but even that is unecessary, all you need a is a bit of hematite blue sealant instead of the gasket.

You won't need new spark plugs, if you do, fit them yourself.

You might not need a skim, but can only tell that once it is off. There is a school of thought that says always do a skim when you've had overheating. I would check it and not skim it unless required. Why won't warranty cover skimmming if it needs it?

You will need new oil & filter.

Pressure check... hmmm... If they mean a cylinder pressure check it doesn't take much to do, only fitting a small gauge once to each cylinder and turning the engine over a few seconds, I'm surprised they have the cheek to charge you for that. It will check to see if there is a leak in the new gasket, or a leak behind your piston rings, again, you can do this yourself with a pressure gauge from halfords, costs about £45 to buy. I would have thought any garage who has just changed a customers head gasket would preesure check their own work to see that they have done the job properly, not charge £200 for this basic simple task. But maybe they have something else in mind when they say "pressure check" ask them what it entails.

Wig

Low mileage cars aren't always a better option, by definition, they have not been used as much and the long intervals between use can cause more wear on the car than a car that gets used 5 days a week 40 miles a day.

Ppelsb

Thanks wig!

I meant timing chain not timing belt! As the engine is being taken apart, it would make sense to put in a new 'chain' as i would need to do that in the foreseeable future anyway.

You also confirmed my doubts that I would not need a new water pump or thermostat, however skimming sounds beneficial.

I get the feeling the garage are trying to take me to the cleaners for a problem that isn't actually that big.

Wig

I haven't changed my timing chain, and I don't EVER intend on doing so.

Tell them to do it all under warranty, that you won't pay for any "special effects".... the only thing I would consider, is a new water pump.

Ppelsb

Thanks a lot! What about skimming? For £60 or £70, skimming seems worth it to me!

forgotmyname

Its amazing what cooking an engine can do to waterpumps and seals etc.

Will they actually test it to see if it needs skimming? Or tell you its been done and cross their fingers as they throw a new gasket on?