How much for a head gasket???

Norma_Desmond

We've got Rover back, and he's just fine (touching wood!). Total bill was £245 which included the head gasket, inlet manifold gasket, exhaust manifold gasket, other bits and bobs AND labour costs. Nice that not everything is a rip-off these days! :j

memark

Hello everyone,

This is (sort of) related.

I've just bought an MG TF, 3.5 years old with 8,600 miles (yes, really :j ) on the clock for £7,850. I just couldn't resist it at that price - it was nearly £21k brand new!

Anyway, the one thing that's bothering me is it's now out of warranty and MG's are not the most reliable cars in the world. In particular, they all seem to need new head gaskets sooner or later (unfortunately, usually sooner), which would have been covered under warranty.

The question I've got is do I now buy a warranty? I've seen www.warrantydirect.co.uk to cover this worry particularly, as well as others of course?

Let's face it, if the head hasket goes, we're looking at a £600 bill or thereabouts. So, if the warranty covers the head, and it's less than that, I'm on a winner and the one major worry about owning an MG is removed.

Thanks,

Mark

jjames_3

Get a warranty, and make damn sure you stick rigidly to the service schedule to make sure they don't worm out of it if the disaster happens.

In all honesty though I wouldn't worry too much about it. Some MG/Rovers can go for many years without a HG failure, and in other respects the K-series is a fairly reliable engine. All makes and models have their weaknesses.

AlanCollier

Norma, where did you get it done?
That's incredibly cheap!

The major cause of failure after a head gasket replacement is where they don't correct the issue that caused the original one to go. Did they replace the water pump?

--Alan

trigger_mike

my mate had a 52 reg freelander with the 1.8 k series engine and the headgasket went after 18,000 miles, common problem

rdwarr

memark wrote:

The question I've got is do I now buy a warranty? I've seen www.warrantydirect.co.uk to cover this worry particularly, as well as others of course?

Make sure it covers you though - they may get out of it by saying it's normal wear and tear for this model.

I bought a warranty when I bought a three year-old Lexus. The radiator failed after another nine months. Although the warranty claimed to cover the radiator it was in fact excluded as it had "come into contact with water"!