Worth the repair?

Dave · 1 Feb 2008 at 16:55

Hi all

I have a Rover 200 at the moment, R reg (done 45 800 miles) that I bought last april for £1200 ish. It's been absolutely fine, but when I was driving to Manchester on Tuesday it broke down - head gasket has gone.

My mechanic at home has said it'd be £400-£500 to fix properly - is it worth the fix or is it time to flog it (how much could you get for it with a bust head gasket?) and get another cheap car?

I like the car, it's great to drive, reasonable on fuel and it's got low mileage for it's age. (only had 1 owner before me, full service history)

Any thoughts on the matter?

Cheers

Dave

Sone · 1 Feb 2008 at 16:59

HG's on rovers only seem to come to £250ish round here

ajgoodfellow · 1 Feb 2008 at 17:03

Get it fixed

It'll be worth nothing if you sell it with a broken headgasket

Don't drive it with a failed headgasket though as you'll cook the head - this equates to big bills

moss · 1 Feb 2008 at 17:08

I'd shop about, not sure where Sone lives but like he said, most garages will charge under £300 for a k-series head gasket change.

The Edge · 1 Feb 2008 at 17:47

If there's nothing else major wrong with it fix it.

Lopéz · 1 Feb 2008 at 17:59

Much easier IMO to just drop a cheap used lump in it. Your decision though

Jon Frost · 1 Feb 2008 at 18:06

Lopéz said:
Much easier IMO to just drop a cheap used lump in it. Your decision though

Obviously you are a mechanic pro.

But how can changing an enginer be easier than a head gasket? Unless to do so would mean to remove the whole thing anyhow?

ajgoodfellow · 1 Feb 2008 at 18:12

Changing the whole engine is far trickier then just the headgasket. If you do this you could be getting an unknown engine and it won't help your resale value

InvaderGIR · 1 Feb 2008 at 18:18

Dropping a new lump in though means that you do not need to re-skim the head. Until the head is off and looked at by a garage he will not know if it is borked or not. Re-skimming the head will bring the costs up. It's why when I blew the HG and warped the head in a 306D that I put a new lump in at a cost of circa £250 instead of spending about £800+ on a new HG and a re-skim.

InvG

Berger · 1 Feb 2008 at 18:22

ajgoodfellow said:
Changing the whole engine is far trickier then just the headgasket. If you do this you could be getting an unknown engine and it won't help your resale value

Id rather change the engine than the head gasket. Just undo everything, lift it out, put new one in and do it all back up again.

If the head gasket is well and truely gone its a nightmare job that takes ages.

Dogbreath · 1 Feb 2008 at 18:23

Lopéz said:
Much easier IMO to just drop a cheap used lump in it. Your decision though

This is a difficult one, because you rarely know the full history of a used engine, and with a 16v K series it's fairly probable that the head gasket will expire at some stage of the engines life. If repaired properly however, it's not likely to fail again.

For £400-500 I would expect the very best work to be carried out, full coolant flush, liner heights accurately measured, head flatness measured and corrected if required and the proper metal shim gasket fitted if liner heights permit, oil change and a new cambelt (as most of the labour is already done when you remove the head and the belts and tensioners are cheap).

If the garage is going to just slap a cheap pattern gasket on then that's at least 50% too much.

The car is worth little with a blown HG, maybe £200 or so if the rest of it's in good condition.

Lopéz · 1 Feb 2008 at 18:26

Jon Frost said:
Obviously you are a mechanic pro.

But how can changing an enginer be easier than a head gasket? Unless to do so would mean to remove the whole thing anyhow?

Because one involves partially dismantling an engine and putting it back together in the right sequence, hoping that the remedial work you have done repairs the problem.

Whereas changing the engine is literally disconnect the old one and put in a replacement.

All depends on your circumstances as to which is the best course of action.

Dave · 1 Feb 2008 at 18:51

InvaderGIR said:
Dropping a new lump in though means that you do not need to re-skim the head. Until the head is off and looked at by a garage he will not know if it is borked or not. Re-skimming the head will bring the costs up. It's why when I blew the HG and warped the head in a 306D that I put a new lump in at a cost of circa £250 instead of spending about £800+ on a new HG and a re-skim.

InvG

Yep, our mechanic has looked at it properly and I'd trust his ballpark figure, he's always very good for labour prices (he's been my parents mechanic for about 20 odd years now!) - when I got my exhaust system replaced over the summer he charged me £15 for labour! If he says it'll be about £400 - £500 I'd trust him that he wasn't putting a bit on for himself.

Dogbreath said:
This is a difficult one, because you rarely know the full history of a used engine, and with a 16v K series it's fairly probable that the head gasket will expire at some stage of the engines life. If repaired properly however, it's not likely to fail again.

For £400-500 I would expect the very best work to be carried out, full coolant flush, liner heights accurately measured, head flatness measured and corrected if required and the proper metal shim gasket fitted if liner heights permit, oil change and a new cambelt (as most of the labour is already done when you remove the head and the belts and tensioners are cheap).

If the garage is going to just slap a cheap pattern gasket on then that's at least 50% too much.

The car is worth little with a blown HG, maybe £200 or so if the rest of it's in good condition.

Yep, that's what I'm thinking, most places say the HG's on these cars go at about 45,000 miles, and it's done it pretty much spot on. I'd trust Ken to do the very best work, he's been in it for absolutely years and he's always done a great job on our cars.

Think I probably will get it done, it should keep it ticking over for a long time. Rest of the car is in very good condition, should have a long life ahead of it. (for a Rover

)

InvaderGIR · 1 Feb 2008 at 19:54

My girlfriend has a 200 (1.6) on a 99 plate, which went at something like 45K, which was before she got it, the mechanic repaired it for the previous owner, who then couldn't afford the repairs, so said take the car. She then bought it with an uprated HG, which'll last, unlike the one that was in it.

I'm not sure on the cost, but I don't think that one required much skimming, so if you are lucky it wont.

Always nice to have a family mechanic, although I don't trust my family's one any more, not since he forgot to put an HT lead back on, and I was running on 3 cylinders in my first car 3 years ago.

InvG