head gasket

[anubis121]

The head gasket blew on my 67 moggie,after paying out 500 pounds to get it repaired(plus a few other small jobs) I drove it for all of 10 mins from the garage and it blew again. The same garage now want payment to repair it, but I don't think I should..am I in the right?

[ampwhu]

where are you? a head gasket costs £7 at most. I'll look at it for you!

[lambrettalad]

DO NOT PAY their work must have a guarantee ,12 months I would presume

Did they run it though a heat cycle? then re tighten ?

[bmcecosse]

£500 !!!! For what??? It's a 1 hour job to change a head gasket ! Did you take it to a BMW garage?? There may well be a problem causing it to blow again (distorted head/grooved block if it was driven any distance with blown gasket) - but they should have checked all that before fitting a new gasket. Did they do anything other than simply change the gasket?? Of course it should have been torqued down again after the first heat cycle - did they do that? Although I rather doubt that is the problem after just 10 minutes running. DO NOT pay any more......

[anubis121]

the gasket was 17 pounds,tenner for a new radiator cap and the rest was for labour...it was a london garage charging 60 an hour.its pretty much my nearest garage.

[bmcecosse]

So how many hours did they take to do the job????? It really IS a ONE hour job - actually 30 minutes if in a rush....... Report them to trading standards and any trade accreditation scheme they may be in. They have at least doubled the cost of the parts..and then must be charging you almost 8 hours labour at that crazy rate?? Aye right...... DIY is by far the best way with a Minor!!

[Matt]

Garages will go to their local motor factor - who are never as cheap as the specialists.

Where I used to work a headset for a minor was nearly £30 (one of the fibre ones) so you can't say anything much about the part prices. And they have to have thier mark up too! It was £27 from the factor where my friend used to live too!

If I were a garage I would get the head set rather than just the gasket, who says the rocker cover gasket won't split when its removed etc?

I also assume they skimmed the head (yes I have seen distorted A series heads) - and thats suprisingly expensive! There may also have been time to go and take the head to a machinest, wait while its done and bring it back again...

But it does sound like they have charged a lot of labour - and given its blown again so quickly they have either done a bad job or not rectified the fault (they should have checked to see that all was flat, the studs were ok etc)

[bmcecosse]

Last time I bought a head gasket it was £4 at the local autoparts place...I'm guessing that may have doubled now so £8. Here's one on ebay... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MG-Midget-A-s ... 3cd1dc6ff1
They can't have skimmed it - or it wouldn't have blown again! Assuming they checked the block of course.... They MUST now fix it foc. Although to be honest I'm not sure I would want them to touch the car again. If you paid by cheque - STOP it !!

[Matt]

I agree that they should fix it.

But they would have got a head set. (I used to work in a factors - we sold far more head sets than just head gaskets!)

And they could have had the head skimmed and it re-blew because they had not cleaned the block up properly, the block was damaged, a bit of rubbish ended up underneath...

OR the problem isn't the gasket and its more serious.

Either way its a lot of money and what they did wasn't fit for purpose. You have to offer them a chance to rectify (in writing!) before going somewhere else though if you want to try and get anything back from them!

I can get most things cheaper on ebay than at the motor factors (even still with staff discount!)... but no garage will get bits off ebay! No guarantee of quality, delivery times or that its the right part...

[anubis121]

The garage have just called me earlier to let me know that the Radiator cap they fitted was faulty and it wasn't holding pressure which is why it blew. So they've ordered another one.[frame][/frame]photo of my minor 'Baldrick'

[aupickup]

oh I am I London most weekends
I would have helped you and saved you £££££££££££££££££££££

[anubis121]

it looks like new.did it cost a lot to re-build?

[aupickup]

thank you
it was recommisioned more than rebuilt
that's was some 6 years ago
pictures are last month
and its kept outside all the time
where in London are you

[simmitc]

The garage you are describing are either incompetent or criminal (or both). The radiator cap not holding its pressure is pure b*llsh*t. The pressure was probably caused by the failed gasket, and no 4lb cap is going to hold 140lb+. A Minor will run for a couple of hours quite happily without a cap. It's simple, a failed cap cannot cause a head gasket to fail in ten minutes.

I really hate situations like this. You are being taken for a ride. I just hope that this experience won't put you off Minors - they are fantastically reliable, and easy to maintain. You need a good engineering / garage company to check the head and block properly. I'm sure that many Minor owners would be glad to help you, but if you want to stand any chance of getting your money back from the fraudsters, then you need to get some good legal advice - Citizens Advice is free, Trading standards is free, and would be very interested in the case.

The one caveat is that we don't know the history of the car, and therefore can't comment on what might have caused the original failure. However, the handling of the case since taking it to the garage speaks for itself.

You have not said anything against the garage, so it would not be against the T&Cs for you to tell us the name and address of the garage concerned.

[steve jw]

shocking, £500 for a gasket I would cut your losses and never return to them but before you do ask for a breakdown of the parts, labour and vat and say your passing it to a solicitor - they should be refunding you not asking for more to repair it.

[bmcecosse]

As above - 'blown head gasket' has NOTHING to do with the 'rad cap' - which should be 4 psi and NO MORE. Note there are two different lengths of cap - maybe they fitted a short one when a long one was necessary.... But - let's back pedal a little - you say the head gasket has blown again - but what exactly happened?? Did it lapse on to 2 cylinders, sounding like a lawn mower and hardly able to move itself? Or - did it just squirt some water out of the radiator overflow........??

[anubis121]

the exhaust started spitting and back firing.i checked the water in the radiator and it had oil in it.

[anubis121]

and yes,there was a big lack in power.

[anubis121]

the main problem for me is im brand new to morris minors and don't know much about them,ive only owned one for 3 months and its broken down 6 times so far and its costing me a lot on repairs.I get told there reliable but mine always seems to have problems.I love the car but now getting tempted to sell it off.

[lambrettalad]

please list the reasons it broke down