Head skimming,necessary?

livinginhope

harveybobbles wrote: »

While they have the head off, they might as well skim it. Specially as it's under warrenty - I'm assuming you aint paying?!?!

We have to pay for the repair then claim it back from the warranty people,the company who the warranty is with are very slow at paying up,so none of the garages will deal with them,the main dealer have repaired the car on this warranty before,but are not prepared to wait a month for payment from the warranty,we have made an agreement to pay the bill and the money will come to us instead of the garage,as long as the garage phone before the work starts to authorise the repair,we will be rembursed.

harveybobbles

Sounds fishy..........................

colin79666

My mate had a 1.1 206. The head gasket went again very quickly after it was first replaced - wasn't skimmed.

onejontwo

As a mechanic for 30 years it's not always the case that the head needs skimming, after a head gasket failure the head needs to be checked for warping with a straight edge and a set of feeler gauges- a simple job for a decent mechanic, and I found a head skim was only needed in approx. 20% of the cases. One other option would be to send it to the machine shop to CHECK whether it would need skimming or not which should incur a relatively small cost.

livinginhope

harveybobbles wrote: »

Sounds fishy..........................

No,not fishy at all the warranty that came with the car is not for any particular garage,when a repair is needed you get to choose the garage for the repair,they pay up to a certain amount for labour plus any parts,the problem is,they take a long time to pay up,about a month last time,the main dealer who repaired the car last time are not prepared to have to wait a month for the money,so we contacted the warranty people and have been told to pay up front and send the invoice in to them,then they will remburse us,as long as the garage phone and get a reference number for the authorisation of the repair everything is ok :rolleyes: we just have to wait a month for the money back,beans on toast for the next month it is then!

onejontwo you have put our minds at rest,BTW,how long should a head gasket last? I have never had one go before in over 20 years of driving and I have had some really bad cars in that time as well as some good ones this car seems to have been one of the better ones until now :mad: it has a full dealer service history and 45000 miles on the clock,what would have caused it to go?

LIH

livinginhope

Just a quick update,car is now fixed and home,total cost £460,£295 will be refunded from the warranty company and the remainder we paid for,they did end up skimming the head,it was checked and they decided to do it to be on the safe side as DH had gone on and on about it :rolleyes: the cambelt was also changed at the same time
Thanks for all the replies :T
LIH

onejontwo

livinginhope wrote: »

No,not fishy at all the warranty that came with the car is not for any particular garage,when a repair is needed you get to choose the garage for the repair,they pay up to a certain amount for labour plus any parts,the problem is,they take a long time to pay up,about a month last time,the main dealer who repaired the car last time are not prepared to have to wait a month for the money,so we contacted the warranty people and have been told to pay up front and send the invoice in to them,then they will remburse us,as long as the garage phone and get a reference number for the authorisation of the repair everything is ok :rolleyes: we just have to wait a month for the money back,beans on toast for the next month it is then!

onejontwo you have put our minds at rest,BTW,how long should a head gasket last? I have never had one go before in over 20 years of driving and I have had some really bad cars in that time as well as some good ones this car seems to have been one of the better ones until now :mad: it has a full dealer service history and 45000 miles on the clock,what would have caused it to go?

LIH

On some particular models the head gaskets fail at an alarming rate , Rover is a good example, they usually need changing every other service!! Also Fiats tend to be prone to failure.
Other models last the lifetime of the vehicle.
Basically keep your coolant topped up at all times , check the anti-freeze strength to stop internal corrosion (especially on alloy cylinder heads), and stop immediately as the first sign of overheating.
Other than that, do your homework before buying and keep your fingers crossed!! (Not whilst driving of course!)
:rotfl:

corsagirl_2

Sorry to jump in on this thread, but BF just picked up his M reg Corsa (I know we are sad with his and hers Corsas!) from garage having had head gasket gone and head was skimmed.

The engine sounds completely different, and also got hot on way back from garage, have checked and coolant still at correct level, he also says that biting point is different and seems to have a lack of power. Will ring garage on Monday but any ideas. He doesn't want to take my car, following it getting a dent!

For bit of history, hose on radiatior went in May, since then have taken car to garage once as was losing coolant, but said that it was only a clip needed tightning, but we had to continuously check coolant in expansion tank, and fill up 3 times when completely empty as BF aware that engine temp going up.