Head gasket faulty repair advice

paulm8101

I had a head gasket replaced on my peugeot 207 last week at a considerable cost. The garage had the car for 4 days.
I then had to take it back a couple od days later as water was leaking from underneath and less than a ten mile drive the engine was extremely hot although the temperature gauge showed at just above 90 degrees. The garage did take the car back and showed that a housing had cracked. It was replaced at the garages cost and said it was previuosly cracked when they removed it to do the head gasket but as it was not leaking left it alone.
Again a couple days later ie today, I have been on another 10 mile drive and noticed a small leak of water coming in to the passenger footwell. This also happened before the head gaskett was replaced.
I lifted the hood, again the engine seemed hot. Left for 10 minutes and took the coolant cap off, dirty oiley water bubbled out over but once gone just clear liquid was left in the collant container.
What is the best course of action now? The garage does have a good reputation but I am losing confidence. I had to pay on collection of the car as normal and it was on a credit car.
I can speak to the garage tmw , am I able to make a section 75 claim if this continues?

paulm8101

Coolant take basically empty now , oiley coolant that bubbled out was the lot - the clear liquied left was just liquid from being so hot I guess.

Joe_Horner

Leak into the footwell is almost certainly heater matrix which, if it was happening before the gasket went, is likely to have been the root cause of the problem - car gradually loses water from that, gets too low, overheats, head gasket fails.

Did you tell the garage about the leak into the footwell when you first took it in or did you assume it was unrelated?

AdrianC

With the head gasket gone, the cooling system would have been running at lower pressures than it should be. Fix that, and the pressure will be back up, so components that weren't leaking may well start.

If the head gasket's initial symptoms - or, as Joe suggests, the original cause - were masked with the use of some chemical additive (bodge goop) added to the coolant, then this may well also have been diluted with the coolant change, causing previously hidden problems to come visible.

Strider590

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Leak into the footwell is almost certainly heater matrix which, if it was happening before the gasket went, is likely to have been the root cause of the problem - car gradually loses water from that, gets too low, overheats, head gasket fails.

Did you tell the garage about the leak into the footwell when you first took it in or did you assume it was unrelated?

Its summer, it could very easily be the drainage hose from the air con being blocked..... Happened twice on my 306.

bigjl

AdrianC wrote: »

With the head gasket gone, the cooling system would have been running at lower pressures than it should be. Fix that, and the pressure will be back up, so components that weren't leaking may well start.

If the head gasket's initial symptoms - or, as Joe suggests, the original cause - were masked with the use of some chemical additive (bodge goop) added to the coolant, then this may well also have been diluted with the coolant change, causing previously hidden problems to come visible.

Actually you find that a cooling system will very often be under more pressure due to a HG leak.

With exhaust gases pressurising the system.

An old school check to see if an engine is running hot is to check the hoses, they are usually much harder than normal if the vehicle is overheating.

arcon5

Was it bubbling out of the header tank or did the cap hold the pressure sufficiently?
If the former it could be as simple as a faulty pressure cap.

A simple block test will confirm if it's serious or not.

As said above though, head gasket failure doesn't result in pressure dropping at all. Pressure increases.

forgotmyname

arcon5 wrote: »

Was it bubbling out of the header tank or did the cap hold the pressure sufficiently?
If the former it could be as simple as a faulty pressure cap.

A simple block test will confirm if it's serious or not.

As said above though, head gasket failure doesn't result in pressure dropping at all. Pressure increases.

He said "VERY OFTEN". If the gasket fails between the cylinders then the pressure goes up. If the gasket fails to the exterior of the head then the pressure drops. When cars had water cooled inlet manifolds the coolant tank could be boiling away and zero pressure build up with the cap on.