Can I sell a car with a blown head gasket?

Tobster86

Horizon81 wrote: »

This man speaks the truth. There's a couple of young birds where I work on a few grand over minimum wage, rolling round in £20k cars (on finance of course) just for the prestige, and because they can.

Absolutely. There are many 15 year old German, Swedish and Japanese cars that are still far better screwed together than a lot of 3 year old cars. Usually with vastly different original purchase prices, mind. I expect the same will hold true in another 15 years, although perhaps with fewer German ones.

koselur

Hi all

Just wanted to bump this and get a little more advice.

I took the car to another garage and was given the same diagnosis - head gasket failure.

I have put K-seal (actually an equivalent but I can't remember what it was called now) into the system.

Car is still running absolutely fine - not overheating. I keep checking oil and coolant both seem good. A little bit of 'mayonnaise' now in the oil which wasn't there before.

I've just been driving it as normal now (had a mammoth trip round the Yorkshire Dales a few weeks ago with no problems).

I've got a trip to Scotland planned in August which will involve over 800 miles driving. I've got roadside recovery but am just really worried the car will let us down while we are away and ruin the trip. I feel like it's a ticking time bomb! I know that the advice given before on here was to get the repair but I am finding it so hard to justify spending £700 (what I was quoted) on repairs on a car that only cost me £475. I have had it nearly a year and it has done over 12000 miles in that time so I feel like it has been pretty good value for money - but am I just being crazy/falling prey to consumer greed?!?

To make things more complicated there are also now some problems with the electronics - nothing serious just some gremlins in the system - got pulled over for a brake light being out then when I went to change it was working perfectly and the reverse light was out - and odd things have been happening with the lights on the dash etc. But it's just more money that will need to be spent. I'm worried that if I drop the money on the HG then something else will go wrong and I will feel obliged to spend on that too.

My OH is really pressing to get a new (second hand!) car - probably a more recent model Agila (ours is a 2001 so pretty old) but I'm really uncertain as to what to do.

What kind of price realistically do you think I could get selling the Agila as it is?

I refuse to believe everyone on this board is driving around in 15+ yo cars!!! But I don't want to be a spoilt brat either.

Oh and vis a vis the comments RE finance - I think that's crazy too! I have friends driving round in cars worth more than their annual salary but they don't have money for a pint. Silly !!!!!!s!

EdGasket

If its a small leak and it sounds like it is, you could try some K-Seal. Just make sure you drain off some coolant and pour the whole lot into the radiator; NOT the overflow tank where you normally would top up. May keep you going for years.

koselur

EdGasket wrote: »

If its a small leak and it sounds like it is, you could try some K-Seal. Just make sure you drain off some coolant and pour the whole lot into the radiator; NOT the overflow tank where you normally would top up. May keep you going for years.

Hi Ed

Thanks for that - I have put some k-seal in so hopefully will keep it going.

roneik

Gosh 700 pounds for a head gasket. Last one I did took less than half a day . It's not rocket science and even if you have old fashioned tappets you only need to know the theory of nine on a four cylinder car to set them up and adjust. It's just a mucky tedious job , but for that money to repair I would sell it. Somebody will buy a head gasket set and fluids and oil and put it right for hardly any money. That's unless the head is distorted which I don't think will be the case.DIY and a Haynes manual, torque wrench few spanners

SailorSam

Before paying out for any repairs which may or may not need doing, and before switching to another new used car which may give you more trouble. You can buy a simple pressure guage which should point you towards any problems.
If you've got a good local motor parts shop check with them.
http://www.headgasketpro.com/head-gasket-repair/using-pressure-gauge-check-a-head-gasket/

Update,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnV7FjLLt2s

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/261610514189?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=c&rlsatarget=&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

consumers_revenge

My Austin princess drove around for months with a blown head gasket. Just kept topping it up all the time. And who said leyland were crap lol!

colino

No engine would drive around for months with a blown head gasket. While a B engine would drink oil and an O would leak water, neither would actually continue to function with a failed HGF for long.