Car issues

Itchytrigg

Itchytrigg

Itchytrigg

Associate
Joined
27 Jan 2009
Posts
2,008
Location
Oxfordshire
Looking for some advice/opinions on my current situation, and sorry in advance for what has turned into a long ramble....

Picked up a diesel 07 plate S-Max with 96k miles from a dealer. All looked good and have been great to deal with but sadly had an overheating issue and starting problem that only became apparent after purchase.

The overheating is coming from a coolant leak, my diagnosis is the square shaped hole near the top of the coolant bottle.

Starting problem is intermittent. We've got power, can turn anything on in the car, no warning messages, just not turning over. Give it an hour and it will start.

Reported all straight away, the dealers been great and met my wife to give her our old car back to use whilst it's dealt with. Overheating was apparently the head gasket, starting issue was a glow plug.

All fixed and returned yesterday. Appeared fine and no overheating on her drive home and no sign of leak even though that hole was still present (and we had reported it). Today, signs off overheating and when she got back out of the shops it wouldn't start.

Waited and got it started so it's home again now, I had to add close to 2 litres of water.

We've text the dealer to let him know. All communication with him has been excellent, I don't get the impression he's trying to screw us at all and this first repair just cost him about £900, but what would you do? Give him one more shot to correct the issues or start the discussion to reject the car as we're within the first 30 days still? I'm tempted to give him that shot but are we just looking at a lemon and should cut our loses before it really becomes our problem to fix?
 
When you put it like that...I wonder why I did not come to the same conclusion! If it was glow plugs presumably it would still turn over.
 
Can't really advise on what you should do regarding rejecting the car, but I would guess that the cause of the non start would be the head gasket being gone, allowed the cylinder to fill with coolant and hydraulic. Water can't be compressed the same as air, so the piston won't go up, causing the engine not to turn over. Later when the coolant has got passed the piston rings, the engine will turn over again.

It sounds like they didn't find the cause of the failure but if they do, and fix it properly, there's no reason to suspect it would give any further trouble later.
 
They already fixed the head gasket but both issues persist. They had it for about a week so I "think" they did work rather than just letting it sit there. More and more on the get rid fence though.
 
You've had to add 2 litres of water in the last 24hrs? I'm no expert but something isn't right. Sounds like a serious coolant leak somewhere.
 
I fully suspect the coolant issue is this hole in the reservoir, it's at the top underside above the max fill line. I only spotted it because of steam escaping, yet the odd part is we still have some pressure in the system as you get the hiss when opening the cap.

The dealer called today, very apologetic and has asked us to think over the weekend what we want to do, if we want to let him try and get it repaired again (after he's spoken to his garage about why they didnt fix the issues first time!) or want a refund (and return of our part exchanged car).

Have a friend coming to take a look, the coolant issue I think is fixable (as long as there's nothing else going on I can't see), the starting issue is what worries me the most as it has the signs of an issue hard to diagnose and potentially costly to fix.
 
Sounds like the dealer is being about as reasonable as you could possibly want. A hole in the cooling system would indeed explain the fact you're loosing coolant. The non starting issue could be something as simple as a sticking ignition switch.

Not saying its the same, but mine did similar a few times after I got it. Turned out to be the sensor that tells it if its in park (its an auto) so I just had to knock it out of park and back in again. I think the car had been sat for a while as now its being used daily it's not happened for a couple of months. It's not necessarily catastrophic or means that it's a lemon.

All cars have issues - you're lucky that they have come to light soon and you're not paying to fix them.
 
I'm thankful he's being reasonable about it all, it could easily have turned into a nightmare of ignoring us, etc.

Mate's coming with a coolant pressure test kit so should hopefully get that all narrowed down, he's also got the computer to plug in as I guess there could be a fault that's just not showing on the dash.

Funny you mention the ignition switch, he mentioned similar as a possibility.
 
It's going back. It would appear either the head gasket work was not completed or it has failed again.

Radderfire why do you day they don't have a good reputation? When looking at options before purchase I didn't come across any red flags on them. And what would you consider the better alternatives being we'll be in the market for a car again soon! Budget's around £6k
 
My friend came by to check it over for us, under the filler cap looks fine but he stuck his hand as far in as he could and came out with a massive amount of mayo gunk. On top of that as he's look further he's finding oddities, such as bolts you need to remove to do the head gasket which are covered in gunk as if they've not been undone. Dust and crap all over the engine which he would have expected to be cleaned before taking the head off (though he did admit they might not have done that but it's not a good idea as your likely to get that crap into the engine).

So, either they never did the head gasket last week or it failed again. Neither prospects fill me with any confidence.

Oh, he also said the hole I found is normal. It's the overflow or some such (you can tell I'm 100% proficient with mechanics right), we're seeing steam/water coming out because something's wrong.
 
Last edited:
Ah fair enough, sounds like they never did it. Given the dealer seems to be being polite and reasonable he might not even know it's not been done. Explain to him calmly that the repair he promised definitely wasn't carried out and you'd like a refund.

Nowt wrong with the s max generally tbh, ignore the guy saying you need Japanese or German - you've just been unlucky with this one
 
Yeah we'll explain about the work as he doesn't appear the most mechanically minded to me and get the feeling the garage he used have done him over on this even though I think he uses the same one all the time.

That's good, my wife really likes it aside from his one having a problem. Just struggling to find another now without having to travel too far.
 
Yeah it does sound like he's been taken for a ride himself - would be worth getting some photos as proof to send to him so he can argue with the garage

Don't let distance put you off too much, a few hours out your day and a train fare for the right car is well worth it
 
Figured I'd just add a reply rather than a new post....

We've returned the car and have our part-ex back, which has left me with a stupid question. It had been transferred to the dealer with the trade slip, is there a reversal process for this or do we have to register as the new keeper? Really annoying as we lost a month when trading in and we're likely to be shot of it again within the next month losing another months tax but it also seems daft to add another registered keeper...not that I guess it matters on a 12 year old Zafira!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom