New head gasket price

AdrianC

Ashley_Grant wrote: »

I might take it to vauxhall itself see what they say, but I've been rinsed off them before. One garage wouldn't touch the car they said �� The cars done 33700

Well, of course a franchise dealer is going to be a LOT more expensive... Parts more expensive, labour far more expensive.

BTW, a Vauxhall dealer isn't "Vauxhall itself" any more than your local newsagent is Rupert Murdoch because the sign outside his shop is branded "The Sun".

Ebe_Scrooge

Just to echo what's been said above, and to add my two-pen'orth. £1800 sounds a lot for a head gasket, it'd be worth asking around if you can find a decent local mechanic. But - changing a head gasket is a very large amount of labour, and it certainly won't be a cheap job. The part itself is pennies (well, not quite pennies, but it's almost a negligible part of the overall cost). It's the stripping, dismantling, cleaning, skimming if required, that costs - that adds up to a lot of hours of labour.

As a slight aside, I'd also want to know why the head gasket has gone (if indeed it has). It's not impossible, but 33,000 miles is pretty low for that to have happened.

EdGasketTheSecond

The garage will not just be charging for a £50 head gasket; they will also most likely include a full set of gaskets and valve seals, new set of head bolts as generally these days they are the use-once, stretch type, new cambelt kit, water pump or if it is chain driven, maybe a new chain, guides and tensioner. The thing is they won't want the punter coming back after 3 months saying something has failed so they generally won't reuse parts they have taken off to do the job. The head may need machining/re-surfacing.


My sister was recently quoted £1500 for a Rover Metro head gasket job so your quote is not right out of the ballpark but it is on the expensive side.


Of course if you were doing the job yourself you could simply buy a gasket and reuse all the old parts, not bother with a skim, and take a chance it will hold but you risk having to do the job twice over and doing it properly the next time.

oldagetraveller

I would be getting it properly diagnosed too. Not someone hearing a ticking noise etc. and declaring it needs a cyl. cover gasket replacement.
Have any diagnostic checks been carried out? e.g. a compression test, leak down test etc..
Have any questions been asked of the mechanic as to why it is specifically a cyl. cover gasket problem?
A definitive answer is needed before potentially chucking £1800 down the pan.

AdrianC

oldagetraveller wrote: »

I would be getting it properly diagnosed too. Not someone hearing a ticking noise etc. and declaring it needs a cyl. cover gasket replacement.

"Cyl. cover"...?

Are you getting the rocker/cam cover and the head confused? Replacing one is trivial, the other isn't.

oldagetraveller

Yes, cylinder cover. That is the correct name for what many call a cylinder head.
The cylinder head is the top of the block.
For the sake of larity, lets call it a cylinder head though!

EdGasketTheSecond

First time I heard 'cylinder cover' as being a cylinder head. Where does that term come from?

AdrianC

oldagetraveller wrote: »

Yes, cylinder cover.

<rolls eyes>

That is the correct name for what many call a cylinder head.

No, it isn't.

The cylinder head is the top of the block.

No, it isn't.

molerat

I think "cylinder cover" is a term more used in heavy industrial engines rather than motor vehicles. Not even our cousins across the pond, who do have very strange names for some bits, seem to use it. Even back when I did my basic training stripping aero piston engines it was a cylinder head. The tin box on top has changed its name over the years.

AdrianC

I s'pose there's an outside chance that OldAgeTraveller hasn't ever seen anything but a two-smoke or sidevalve, where the head really is not much more than a cover.