Head gasket gone - what next?

cravin penut · 27 Aug 2013 at 18:10

I'm looking for a bit of advise about what to do with my VW Bora, I have had confirmed by my mechanic that the head gasket has failed and have been quoted £620inc vat to fix.

It currently owes me around £1200 in just buying it and a new battery about a month ago, its sitting on just over 78,000 miles and is the one of the first 2.0 off the production line in 1999.

My problem is that since I bought it back in Jan this year I have covered well over 12k miles and I know that a few things need attending mainly:

Front Pads and Disks need replacing
New tyres all round very soon
There is a knocking from either the front N/S corner or an engine mount or something
Air con has gone (presume needs re-gas at best)
Getting into first is becoming a real struggle (suspect its the synchro)

Do I call it quits, part out the car and hope to get what i paid for it back? Or suck it up and pay up with better the devil you know attitude?

ubersonic · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:16

Is the mechanic certain that a HG replacement will fix it and the hasn't been any consequential damage? I had the HG go on my Supra the other month and it was cheaper to break the car than repair

Biohazard · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:19

What are the running issues?

cravin penut · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:23

Mechanic has done a compression test on all cylinders and assures me it is the head gasket, he is a long term mechanic for the family and I trust his work.

Having done a bit of maths I figure I could get between £700-1000 after scrapping or parting out.

What do you mean running issues?

paradigm · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:33

Can you replace the car with one that is known reliable and not requiring any spend on it, for the £620? Same question for the £700+£620? If the answer is "no", then repairing it, whilst quite "expensive" compared to the value of the car, is still the best choice.

Biohazard · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:35

cravin penut said:
Mechanic has done a compression test on all cylinders and assures me it is the head gasket, he is a long term mechanic for the family and I trust his work.

Having done a bit of maths I figure I could get between £700-1000 after scrapping or parting out.

What do you mean running issues?

You've taken the car to the garage because it isn't running right; running issues.

Can you remember anything he said about the compression test? Or was it just that?

Gaygle · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:43

cravin penut said:
My problem is that since I bought it back in Jan this year I have covered well over 12k miles and I know that a few things need attending mainly:

Front Pads and Disks need replacing - £75 from ECP plus fitting of hours labour or so

New tyres all round very soon - £320 for decent tyres inc fitting

There is a knocking from either the front N/S corner or an engine mount or something likely to be ARB link - £20 ish from ECP

Air con has gone (presume needs re-gas at best) £45 from Kwik Fit

Getting into first is becoming a real struggle (suspect its the synchro) Could need a recon gearbox but that can come after the other stuff

With the stuff I listed, you could potentially fix 2 of the items on the list for around £120. And have all but the gearbox fixed for around £500.

This is why you shouldn't ignore things to do on cars, because then it gets to a point where 4 or 5 things need doing and you end up forking out £500-600 in one go, as opposed to £100 every now and then.

cravin penut · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:47

That's the real question, I suppose I am in a good position that I can use my brothers old car until a decent replacement becomes available or the repairs are done.

I initially took the car into the garage with severe overheating problems about a month ago, the car had a water housing at the back of the engine replaced which fixed a cooling leak but it seems the damage was done. Although initially fine the car began overheating again last week, I dropped it straight round to the garage.

Basically he told me that he had done a compression test amongst other things and it was head gasket that failed.

Dogbreath · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:47

Mr Biohazard is talking sense, what running problems made you take it to the garage in the first place? These engines are not known for blowing headgaskets, but they are known for building up white gunk in the cam cover when used for short journeys which can lead to the wrong conclusion.

£620 seems very steep for the job as well, the 2.0L is a simple single OHC engine so it's not exactly rocket science.

Dogbreath · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:51

cravin penut said:
Although initially fine the car began overheating again last week, I dropped it straight round to the garage.

Basically he told me that he had done a compression test amongst other things and it was head gasket that failed.

Are there any other symptoms, e.g. is it still losing coolant? Is it difficult to start (struggles to turn over)? Is there any sweet smelling white smoke from the exhaust after starting?

Was the thermostat replaced after the first overheating incident?

cravin penut · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:52

It's not me not noticing or choosing to ignore these problems, foolishly it a massive lack of time recently in the last 6 months. You are right though, it has got to the point where it's all adding up and making it hard to spend that kind of money on the car.

Edit
It was parked up at a festival for 3 days and on leaving the car park all the coolant drained from the car and the dashboard started screaming at me. I let it cool for an hour and filled it back up and I eventually made it home, I took it to the garage and they replaced the water housing.
No the thermostat wasn't replaced.s

Biohazard · 27 Aug 2013 at 19:59

Gaygle said:
With the stuff I listed, you could potentially fix 2 of the items on the list for around £120. And have all but the gearbox fixed for around £500.

This is why you shouldn't ignore things to do on cars, because then it gets to a point where 4 or 5 things need doing and you end up forking out £500-600 in one go, as opposed to £100 every now and then.

Before swapping a gearbox due to selection issues I would check there is oil in the box first!

Or do an oil change to see if it helps anyway.

It could be a tenner or fifteen quid spent that saves a lot of time and effort.

Biohazard · 27 Aug 2013 at 20:00

cravin penut said:
That's the real question, I suppose I am in a good position that I can use my brothers old car until a decent replacement becomes available or the repairs are done.

I initially took the car into the garage with severe overheating problems about a month ago, the car had a water housing at the back of the engine replaced which fixed a cooling leak but it seems the damage was done. Although initially fine the car began overheating again last week, I dropped it straight round to the garage.

Basically he told me that he had done a compression test amongst other things and it was head gasket that failed.

Are you losing coolant?

Biohazard · 27 Aug 2013 at 20:01

Dogbreath said:
Mr Biohazard is talking sense, what running problems made you take it to the garage in the first place? These engines are not known for blowing headgaskets, but they are known for building up white gunk in the cam cover when used for short journeys which can lead to the wrong conclusion.

£620 seems very steep for the job as well, the 2.0L is a simple single OHC engine so it's not exactly rocket science.

It's probably including skimming etc.

The indy my mum uses sends all the heads for a skim regardless it would seem.

cravin penut · 27 Aug 2013 at 20:24

Initially it was losing buckets of coolant but after the first visit to the garage it maybe lost 3-400ml on taking it back 3 weeks later. I will double check wether it does include the skim, I seem to remember him saying something about that. I'm getting a second quote from a mates usual mechanic tonight.

Tbh I'm leaning towards parting it out over the next 2 weeks.

Biohazard · 27 Aug 2013 at 20:28

Are you getting white smoke?

cravin penut · 27 Aug 2013 at 22:06

Not sure about the white smoke, will take a look at it tomorrow, what's that an indicator of then?

Biohazard · 27 Aug 2013 at 22:17

Look in your rear view/wing mirrors when you are sitting revving or 'booting it' down the road on a relatively warm / dry day.

All cars get puffs of white smoke in the cold & wet, so look to see if you are letting off steam when other cars aren't.

If you get the other quote get the cylinder pressures off him and post them here.

If he says a cylinder isn't right, ask him to show you it in comparison to an ok one. If you're shy, just say you are curious and would like to learn or something.

Check the oil dipstick for white 'mayo' gunk, same with oil filler cap. Take car to garage and ask for a coolant pressure and leak down test as well.

TehBluebear · 28 Aug 2013 at 09:47

ubersonic said:
Is the mechanic certain that a HG replacement will fix it and the hasn't been any consequential damage? I had the HG go on my Supra the other month and it was cheaper to break the car than repair

It didn't happen to be a MkIII did it? As those were notorious for HG issues, reason being that Toyota had released the wrong torque figures for the headbolts!

Biohazard said:
It's probably including skimming etc.

The indy my mum uses sends all the heads for a skim regardless it would seem.

Always a good idea to get the head skimmed after a HG failure, the metal can be warped slightly which would only cause the issue to rear it's head again when a new headgasket is fitted if not skimmed.

Biohazard · 28 Aug 2013 at 20:35

TehBluebear said:
Always a good idea to get the head skimmed after a HG failure, the metal can be warped slightly which would only cause the issue to rear it's head again when a new headgasket is fitted if not skimmed.

Personally, I'd just check it with a steel ruler and feeler guage first.

If you skim the head you are effecting compression and would certainly need new bolts.