head gasket c280

[triumph]

I took my car to merc mechanic with oil leak, he said oil was leaking from front cover and charged me £220, a week later still leaking he now says its the head gasket and wants another £778
is this a easy job for a diy person, it is straight 6 cylinder model
aslo has John Griffiths in Caversham ripped me off I think so as no mention of head gasket was ever mentioned. he also put phone down on me when trying to talk about it
thank you

 

[television]

I took my car to merc mechanic with oil leak, he said oil was leaking from front cover and charged me £220, a week later still leaking he now says its the head gasket and wants another £778
is this a easy job for a diy person, it is straight 6 cylinder model
aslo has John Griffiths in Caversham ripped me off I think so as no mention of head gasket was ever mentioned. he also put phone down on me when trying to talk about it
thank you

Why not wash off the front of the engine with" gunk " and see where the oil is coming from first.

Malcolm

 

[JamieD]

Head Gaskett is a bit tricky in my experience - but very good for getting ot know your car - can be very time consuming and frustrating (if you get cylinder bolts stuck etc).

I had a similar problem with a saab 9000, and decided to change myself (with limited experience) - bought a haynes manual and read that through a few times to make sure I knew what I was in for... went ok, but did need help from a friend in places... car ran great!

From the sound of it the dealer who diagnosed the problem is a bit of a muppet - you may want to get a 2nd opinion...

Can you see where the oil is leaking from and does the car have any other problems?? (oil in coolant / coolant in oil / loosing coolant / poor performance). How much oil is leaking?

 

[MercTech]

Headgasket

Not really a DIY job, Try an independent specialist like PCS in Milton Keynes.
The price you have been quoted sounds a bit high!
Its around a nine hour job, So a labour figure at a dealer should be around £900 and a fair independent price I think should be around half!

http://www.pcs-mk.co.uk/mercedes

 

[triumph]

many thanks for all your replies I think I wil email pcs for quote
regards DAVE

 

[kth286]

Dave

You can do a couple of things:

1. Ask for your money back, or at least a portion of it, or you will take matters further - they will probably belong to some motor dealer association and at present this whole area is high profile with "WHICH" saying many dealers are crap and trying to force stronger legislation for compensation.

After all, the garage is a Merc specialist and they should have known the likely problem and the probable solution.

You could take them to the small claims court and they would have to pay costs as well as your refund. It would be worth an initial free Solicitor meeting and perhaps then a Solicitor letter to show you are serious.

2. You can then use the refunded money to get the job done at another local specialist in Caversham called STAR MOTORS. Check them out.

3. A first thing you must do however is check your oil level, as there was a Mercedes technical bulletin stating that the oil level be reduced on your 104 engine.
It should never be more than half way between min and max marks on dipstick

This could solve the leak problem to a great extent - it did mine.

4. Leaks on Mercs are common and if it is not too bad it can go for many many miles without problem. Is your leak causing pools of oil on the driveway? If not, then by reducing the level it could be OK.

Regards

 

[triumph]

many thank for your reply David
I will try your idea of reducing the oil level
will report back thank you

 

[flagstaff]

what's the mileage? cylinder head gaskets on these engines will *definitely* fail at some point, with the 100,000 mile mark being favourite. although according to www.honestjohn.co.uk, it has been seen as low as 70,000. the reason is that the original head gasket was poorly designed for the application - your replacement gasket will be slightly different. i did mine in the summer (E280 version) and the job went fairly easily ... apart from at the end where it took me a looooong time to work out that i'd conected the fuel hoses up incorrectly ... but you must pay careful attention to the refitting of the cam chain tensioner, and also the variable valve timing gizmo on the inlet side. it was also handy to have a hoist for the head, as it's very heavy. if no hoist is available you could use another pair (or two) of hands for the lifting.

 

[flagstaff]

forgot to mention about the leak - if you do the job yourself, make sure to follow the manual's instruction to the letter when resealing the cam chain cover to the cylinder block/cylinder head joint. i'd be willing to bet that this is where your current leak is from; although the leak from here can be a symptom of a failing CHG, rather than the only problem.

to come to the defence of your mechanic, my guess is that he was hoping to get away with resealing the above mentioned joint (another known weakness of these engines), but has found out the expensive (for you) way that the problem lies further back along the chain. it seems to me that a little more communication amongst yourselves could have saved a whole bucketload of angst all round. being in business myself - although thankfully not the motor trade - i know only too well that both parties in a repair situation treat each other with some circumspection ... if not downright suspicion.