Advice Please - Car engine 'blown' after 40,000 miles.

All_The_Gear_No_Idea

Hi All,

New to this forum and looking for some advice on the following situation:

I have a 2014 Vauxhall Corsa which I purchased in 2015, only one previous owner, which has just done over 40,000 miles. I have full service/MOT history and generally have had no issues with the car until last week. My car was due a service and having recently moved to a new area and not being familiar with the local garages I decided to take it to Halfords for a major service. The car was running fine prior to the service and they found nothing wrong with the vehicle during the service. Anyway, a week later I completed my first long journey (150+ miles) since the service and the engine 'blew'. The coolant warning light came on and I pulled over a few minutes later at the next lay-by. I left it a few minutes before restarting the engine, it started and I drove forward a couple of metres but I could feel something wasn't right. Turned off the engine and it's not been able to start since. The vehicle got recovered and immediately the recovery mechanic suggested that the head gasket had gone. After getting the vehicle recovered back to my address I had a mechanic come out and take a look at the vehicle, who also agreed the head gasket had gone. He completed a compression test on the cylinders with results of: 0, 30, 30, 50. Anyway, I agreed to have him replace the head gasket and test the cylinders to see if they were also damaged - it turns out they were. However, he's informed me he can't seem to get the valves (which i believe connect to the cylinders, may be wrong) to seal. Because of this he has told me he is reluctant to replace the head gasket/cylinders and is also concerned that the rest of the engine may be damaged. He has since advised that replacing the entire engine is likely to be the most cost efficient solution.

What are peoples thoughts on this? Vauxhall quote me around £4,000 to replace it which is obviously not worth it, as I believe the car is only worth around 4 grand itself. However, the independent mechanic that has been looking at it reckons that if it was replaced with an older reconditioned engine it could cost me around £1,500. Alternatively, he reckons I could get around £1,000 if I was to sell it in the condition it's presently in. I'm currently waiting on a formal quote but really torn what the best option is.

Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

ricky101

Hi,

Not sure if Corsas are prone to blown their head gaskets, but would seems unusual for such a young car.

You might try posting in one of the many  Corsa Uk forums where you should get a better qualified reply,

https://www.vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk/index.php

https://www.thecorsa.co.uk/forum

Whats not quiet clear from your message, is what has that mechanic done, just externally tested or has he removed the cylinder head to examine things internally ?

Generally would not have thought a blown head gasket would have damaged other thing like valves if you acted so quickly, but with the modern engines its had to say what damage coudl be done.

Always your right to ask for someon else to look at it but until the head has been removed it difficult for anyone to be certain, worht asking for a price to remove the head and see, should onlee be a couple of hours work .

Generally valves and pistons only get damaged when the timing Belt brakes, but think yours has a timing Chain.

AdrianC

There's serious Chinese Whispers going on here.

First question is what the "coolant light" is telling you. Low level? If so, why? Too hot? If so, why?

Driving a couple of minutes won't have helped matters. It's unlikely the head gasket caused such low compression readings across all four cylinders - I'd expect figures in the region of 150-200 psi, assuming and a petrol engine (150 psi is 10 bar, so they could be 3.0/5.0 bar)

If the "valves don't seal", then there's other damage - the head gasket won't cause that. Has he actually had the engine apart?

What engine is it? I have a feeling these are chain cam, not belt...

tacpot12

I think your best option is to sell the car with the failed engine. It is likely that a mechanic will buy it and fit an engine from a written off Corsa, e.g. one that has had a bad rear end shunt. You can put the money towards a new car, but I wouldn't buy another Corsa, they seem to have more than their fair share of engine failures. 

KimJongUn88

Bravo on not trying to blame Halfords for breaking your car!

All_The_Gear_No_Idea

AdrianC said:

There's serious Chinese Whispers going on here.

First question is what the "coolant light" is telling you. Low level? If so, why? Too hot? If so, why?

Driving a couple of minutes won't have helped matters. It's unlikely the head gasket caused such low compression readings across all four cylinders - I'd expect figures in the region of 150-200 psi, assuming and a petrol engine (150 psi is 10 bar, so they could be 3.0/5.0 bar)

If the "valves don't seal", then there's other damage - the head gasket won't cause that. Has he actually had the engine apart?

What engine is it? I have a feeling these are chain cam, not belt...

Thanks for the comment. 
I believe the coolant light came on to indicate low level. After pulling over and checking the coolant it was apparent there was a coolant leak. He's taken the head gasket, cylinder and valves off, and had an engineer test the cylinders. He has said he won't know for sure if there's an additional problem without taking the whole engine apart, which was described to myself as quite a task, but suspects there will be further problems and therefore reckons it's more efficient to accept its knackered and just replace the whole thing.. if I decide to go down that route. 

The engine code is A12XER if that helps. 

All_The_Gear_No_Idea

ricky101 said:

Hi,

Not sure if Corsas are prone to blown their head gaskets, but would seems unusual for such a young car.

You might try posting in one of the many  Corsa Uk forums where you should get a better qualified reply.

Whats not quiet clear from your message, is what has that mechanic done, just externally tested or has he removed the cylinder head to examine things internally ?

Generally would not have thought a blown head gasket would have damaged other thing like valves if you acted so quickly, but with the modern engines its had to say what damage coudl be done.

Always your right to ask for someon else to look at it but until the head has been removed it difficult for anyone to be certain, worht asking for a price to remove the head and see, should onlee be a couple of hours work .

Generally valves and pistons only get damaged when the timing Belt brakes, but think yours has a timing Chain.

Thanks for the comment and recommendation of for those forums, I'll have a look on there.

He's removed the cylinders and sent them to an engineer to test/examine. He said they were knackered, I think 'cracked' was the term he used. Also, mentioned that the valves had been completely 'cooked' which is what makes him thinks there's more problems than just the head gasket going, as you also suggested. 

The engine code is A12XER if that means anything to you. 

marlot

All_The_Gear_No_Idea said:

...He's removed the cylinders and sent them to an engineer to test/examine. He said they were knackered, I think 'cracked' was the term he used. Also, mentioned that the valves had been completely 'cooked' which is what makes him thinks there's more problems than just the head gasket going, as you also suggested. 

The engine code is A12XER if that means anything to you. 

That would be the cylinder head.  The cylinders are big holes in the engine block, where the pistons go up and down.  The cylinder head goes on top of the engine block, and seals the top of cylinders.  The head contains valves to let the fuel/air in, and the exhaust gas out.

A crack in the cylinder head is bad news, and normally means the head is scrap.  They can sometimes be welded - but you wouldn't bother on a head for a corsa.  The fact that the valves are coked up means that the engine wasn't running well for a while before the incident.  It might have been burning oil, for instance.

It sounds like the mechanic is aware that this could be a saga that runs and runs.  Having been there, be very suspicious of any 'reconditioned' engines, unless they are from a recognised firm (there are many crooks out there).  My best cheap engine came from a car which had just failed its MOT on rust, but the engine was great.

AdrianC

All_The_Gear_No_Idea said:

I believe the coolant light came on to indicate low level. After pulling over and checking the coolant it was apparent there was a coolant leak.

Simply because the level was way down...? Not because you could see coolant escaping from somewhere? So the question is where it went. Was it an external leak, or did it drink it all? But, yes, it sounds as if driving with no coolant in is what's cooked the head itself.

motorguy

AdrianC said:

All_The_Gear_No_Idea said:

I believe the coolant light came on to indicate low level. After pulling over and checking the coolant it was apparent there was a coolant leak.

Simply because the level was way down...? Not because you could see coolant escaping from somewhere? So the question is where it went. Was it an external leak, or did it drink it all? But, yes, it sounds as if driving with no coolant in is what's cooked the head itself.

I agree with this.

Head gasket failure is normally a consequence of a problem, not the problem itself.  I'd say a pipe has burst or a hose come off and the coolant has blown out on to the road.  At that point the engine will start doing itself massive damage as it has no coolant and is at full running temperature.

daveyjp

Could be a failed cooling fan sensor and/or motor.  Happened to a friend's 6 year old Corsa last year.  Thankfully she was in traffic so pulled over as soon as she saw steam, but coolant was bubbling.  Left the car for a couple of hours and drive it a short distance off the main road so no major damage.

If you are driving fast you would have been oblivious to the issue until the problem became really serious, by which time it was too late.