Head gasket gone on my Astra. £800 repair bill.

[Calumcco]

I give up.

 

[turbopete]

I give up.

that is, unfortunately, one of the joys of old 'classic' cars.

and it was quite a common thing on them back in the day too! i did a couple for a mate of mine in dads garage years ago. 1 on a cavalier, the other a Nova GTE. both shared the same engine (basically)

 

[Craiglxviii]

Sorry to hear that. However...

Many people have you great advice to NOT buy that car, you went ahead and did so and here you see the result. One of the many Ford Focuses (Focii?) that were available would have been a far better choice, much less likely to explode steam out from the bonnet.

 

[television]

This is going to happen on all these types of car when used daily:sad::sad:

 

[Calumcco]

Sorry to hear that. However...

Many people have you great advice to NOT buy that car, you went ahead and did so and here you see the result. One of the many Ford Focuses (Focii?) that were available would have been a far better choice, much less likely to explode steam out from the bonnet.

Hi Craig. To be fair though a head gasket could easily have gone on any potential car I bought. It happened on my old 300CE-24 which I was advised to buy by MB members!!! But in that case the car had done 197932 miles not the 36194 that my Astra has done now.

How can a car in such good shape with hardly any miles suddenly blow a gasket?

 

[EmilysDad]

I give up.

£800 is taking the **** ...... I'm sure you could get it done for a lot less than that

 

[EmilysDad]

....

How can a car in such good shape with hardly any miles suddenly blow a gasket?

Low mileage or not, the gasket [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] was still 15 yrs old.

 

[turbopete]

Hi Craig. To be fair though a head gasket could easily have gone on any potential car I bought. It happened on my old 300CE-24 which I was advised to buy by MB members!!! But in that case the car had done 197932 miles not the 36194 that my Astra has done now.

How can a car in such good shape with hardly any miles suddenly blow a gasket?

age basically. newer cars have more plentiful parts supplies. these are getting rare now so parts are a little less readily available. also IIRC the cylinder heads themselves were prone to failing on these (went porous)

its done 36k miles in 25 years. either its been a garage queen and, as we warned, it wouldnt like being a daily runner, OR its spent its life in the garage with issues.

personally i feel that people who have cars like that only sell them because they feel there could be a large bill looming and unfortunately its happened to you AGAIN.

mo offense but there really were HUNDREDS of cars better suited to your needs out there, safer, more modern and reliable, you chose a classic. fair enough. BUT with classic ownership there are always bills which even relative to the time when they were new, are always bigger.

if you bite the bullet and get the head gasket sorted, you may have no issues for 10 years. or you may have issues in 10 miles. ANY car can blow a head gasket. unless its so finely machined that a gasket isnt necessary (you wont see that on a road car) and, as said, can happen to anyone at any time.

the way i see it, you have 3 options.
1. fix it and get on with life hoping no more big bills for a while
2. get rid and buy something else and hope no big bills for a while
3. get rid and have no car

 

[Calumcco]

£800 is taking the **** ...... I'm sure you could get it done for a lot less than that

That's what I am not sure about. Is that a large sum for a basic car like a Vauxhall? I would expect this price for an Audi, BMW or Mercedes but not a very basic 1990's Vauxhall Astra.

 

[turbopete]

£800 is taking the **** ...... I'm sure you could get it done for a lot less than that

i feel the same. unless the head is porous or being replaced with a recon head (rather than skim the old one)

the last one i did on a Cavalier, the guy that did the head skimming at the time charged £20 for the head skim (this is at least 20 years ago though) the head bolts, full head gasket set and cam belt were about £70 all in. new oil/filter and antifreeze would probably be about £30 NOW.

 

[Calumcco]

age basically. newer cars have more plentiful parts supplies. these are getting rare now so parts are a little less readily available. also IIRC the cylinder heads themselves were prone to failing on these (went porous)

its done 36k miles in 25 years. either its been a garage queen and, as we warned, it wouldnt like being a daily runner, OR its spent its life in the garage with issues.

personally i feel that people who have cars like that only sell them because they feel there could be a large bill looming and unfortunately its happened to you AGAIN.

mo offense but there really were HUNDREDS of cars better suited to your needs out there, safer, more modern and reliable, you chose a classic. fair enough. BUT with classic ownership there are always bills which even relative to the time when they were new, are always bigger.

if you bite the bullet and get the head gasket sorted, you may have no issues for 10 years. or you may have issues in 10 miles. ANY car can blow a head gasket. unless its so finely machined that a gasket isnt necessary (you wont see that on a road car) and, as said, can happen to anyone at any time.

the way i see it, you have 3 options.
1. fix it and get on with life hoping no more big bills for a while
2. get rid and buy something else and hope no big bills for a while
3. get rid and have no car

Thank you turbopete. I really do appreciate your advice.

This car definitely hasn't spent its life in the garage with issues. I have a large portfolio/service history to back this up. It will definitely have been a garage queen. Its only done a few hundred miles between MOT's for the past 4-5 years IIRC.

I am going to bite the bullet and get it repaired and lets just hope that nothing else goes majorly wrong in the future.

 

[Calumcco]

Low mileage or not, the gasket [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] was still 15 yrs old.

Hi I don't get what you mean? Do you simply mean that the gasket is ancient and would have been done at least 15 odd years ago???

 

[turbopete]

just looked on ECP and head gasket is currently under £12 to buy, manifold gasket under £5, cam seal under £4. head bolts, depends on the type but the most expensive is £18 then say £20 for oil and filter change, £20 max for anti freeze, and even if we said £50 for a head skim, still means the labour is coming to about £650! holy crap! i dont remember them taking THAT long to do!

edit, forgot the cambelt at a whopping £12

 

[television]

I reckon 4 to 6 hours from a good guy at £50 per hour

 

[turbopete]

Hi I don't get what you mean? Do you simply mean that the gasket is ancient and would have been done at least 15 odd years ago???

gaskets get brittle with age, no matter what they are made from. 15 years of doing nothing (probably 25 IIRC) then suddenly its doing what it needs to every day, and it breaks. think of it as an elastic band. works fine but over time the rubber perishes and eventually for no apparent reason, it snaps. just like that. same with your 25 year old head gasket

 

[turbopete]

I reckon 4 to 6 hours from a good guy at £50 per hour

sounds about right. with all the tools etc handy. i had to beg borrow etc tools that i didnt have at home, doing oil etc on the floor at home and STILL didnt take anywhere near the 10+ hours that guy looks like theyre quoting, and that was on a slightly harder INJECTION model, which INCLUDED changing all the valve stem oil seals etc

 

[television]

I could take the head and sump of a XJ6 and put it all back including a piston in 1 day.

 

[Calumcco]

sounds about right. with all the tools etc handy. i had to beg borrow etc tools that i didnt have at home, doing oil etc on the floor at home and STILL didnt take anywhere near the 10+ hours that guy looks like theyre quoting, and that was on a slightly harder INJECTION
model, which INCLUDED changing all the valve stem oil seals etc

Do you think I am being taken for a ride then?
Should I phone around some garages and get competitive quotes?

 

[stwat]

You should always get more than one quote.

 

[Calumcco]

You should always get more than one quote.

I can refuse to have it done at this particular garage but how far will I get with large vapour trails and risk breaking down again? I'm sure RAC wouldn't take kindly to being called out again for the same problem.