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

[Calumcco]

You took a 25 year old car into a main dealer for repair??
I'm just astounded, I really am.



The error started when you bought it Calum. Despite everything said to you, all the great advice, you ignored everyone and did it your way.
Even yesterday I pointed out a bargain MB for less than half the amount you are throwing at this wreck but no, this old Astra is better. http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showpost.php?p=1353905&postcount=75

I'm sorry to be so dismissive Calum but you make mistake after mistake and then compound it by ignoring everyone. Other members probably think I'm being a right ba$tard saying this, but nothing ever gets through.

I guarantee you will have another problem, soon, with this car. It was a garage queen and now its expected to be your daily. It was never going to work and it still won't .
I wish you well with it and I'll stay completely out of your threads from now on as I can't help you. In fact I wonder if there is anyone here at all who can.

Hello AMGeed.
4 miles a day hardly constitutes a daily driver IMHO. I only drive it 2 miles to work and then 2 miles home. All other journeys are done in my Mums car.

Don't worry you are not being dismissive. I like to keep an open mind and appreciate all advice from all members.

Hopefully I wont get any more problems. It has been garaged and well maintained and serviced throughout its short mileage. It has passed MOT's most of the time with no major issues. As it happens the MOT expires next month so an MOT will be imminent.

The MB you recommended was spares or repairs value which doesn't bode well. It had also done 224000 miles IIRC which means the engine and other components will be close to expiring. My 300CE-24 had 197000 miles and was knackered by this point.

 

[Calumcco]

When you have saved some more money do get the car waxoiled, this will stop it from rusting. It is not that expensive to have done.

How do I do this?

 

[Calumcco]

You took a 25 year old car into a main dealer for repair??
I'm just astounded, I really am.


The error started when you bought it Calum. Despite everything said to you, all the great advice, you ignored everyone and did it your way.
Even yesterday I pointed out a bargain MB for less than half the amount you are throwing at this wreck but no, this old Astra is better. http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showpost.php?p=1353905&postcount=75

I'm sorry to be so dismissive Calum but you make mistake after mistake and then compound it by ignoring everyone. Other members probably think I'm being a right ba$tard saying this, but nothing ever gets through.

I guarantee you will have another problem, soon, with this car. It was a garage queen and now its expected to be your daily. It was never going to work and it still won't .
I wish you well with it and I'll stay completely out of your threads from now on as I can't help you. In fact I wonder if there is anyone here at all who can.

Hi AMGeed. I made a mistake. It's not main dealer as in a Vauxhall garage but it is a large independent franchise based in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

 

[television]

How do I do this?

Ask again when you get the car back and we can go through your options

 

[turbopete]

Wasn't there a cylinder head cracking problem on this model Astra, or was it only the GTE?

not sure about the heads cracking but it wasnt overly common to change the anti freeze as recommended, in the day, which led to LOTS of porous alloy heads which the Vauxhall OHC engine (as well as the Peugeot 1.9 diesel engine) of the era seemed particularly prone to at the time. im wondering if the quote is a 'worst case scenario' price, and includes sending the head for pressure testing and includes the price of a new head etc, if necessary?

 

[Peter G]

A friend of mine had, I think, a G plate 16 valve GTE from new.

After a few years of admittedly very hard use, it developed head gasket type problems, oil in the coolant etc.

Anyway, long story short, turned out there was either a water or oil gallery in the head which crossed very close beneath the seating for one of the head bolts. Eventually cracks developed and fluids started to intermingle!

I think it must have been quite common since Vauxhall modded the heads and replaced them FOC.

 

[LostKiwi]

Hello AMGeed.
4 miles a day hardly constitutes a daily driver IMHO. I only drive it 2 miles to work and then 2 miles home. All other journeys are done in my Mums car.

Four miles per day? And no long runs at all? That's the worst possible usage for a car. Combustion byproducts get into the oil and will never evaporate away (and are highly acidic), the oil never gets hot enough to lubricate the engine and the mixtures are permanently rich and causing accelerated bore wear.
If it does another 40k miles without issues I'll be amazed.

Not being flippant but for that kind of mileage i would cycle or walk.

 

[onefortheroad]

you could probs have an engine swap from a newer astra / Vauxhall for less than £ 800 .

 

[television]

Four miles per day? And no long runs at all? That's the worst possible usage for a car. Combustion byproducts get into the oil and will never evaporate away (and are highly acidic), the oil never gets hot enough to lubricate the engine and the mixtures are permanently rich and causing accelerated bore wear.
If it does another 40k miles without issues I'll be amazed.

Not being flippant but for that kind of mileage i would cycle or walk.

Maybe the car was used once a week and did 28 miles each time, maybe the car was only used in the summer. I know people that have kept the cars in a garage for years. Yes I know there can be problems in doing this.

 

[Arzaam]

i would not worry too much about the very low use provided it was well taken care off in that time according to its use and was kept meeting shape.

now 3 of my personal cars each only cover around 650miles annually, that works to 1.9 miles a day. but i have had two of them for 5 years and the Mercedes for 1 year now and they are all in top shape why? because i drive them twice a week each, one time 4 miles journey or longer in winters and second time in the morning on empty roads at high speed or acceleration for minumim 15 min, its so hot here that it only takes 2 min or 1km at max to reach operating temp in summers with avg outside temp of 40C. and stuff like rubber parts whether mechanical or suspension are changed as necessary and oil changed once a year and fully synthetic is used. i have no problem of carbon buildup even when taken a special camera and pried thorugh the oil cap all the rocker arm vlaves etc were squeaky clean more so than our daily driver which does 24000miles annually.

300miles in that figure of 650 miles is a twice a year 150 mile motorway journey for each car at high speeds above 140kph in hot weather so they get good long hot runs as well, and this formula has been working fine.


however for poor Callum the astra probably wasn't cared for in this time period no matter how attractive the figure on the odometer looked and the extra needs of the car because of so little running were not fulfilled. and as a general rule yes a high milage car will be better then one thats rarely driven or has been babied and driven at 2k rpm all its life but there can be exceptions as well.

 

[00slk]

Four miles per day? And no long runs at all? That's the worst possible usage for a car. Combustion byproducts get into the oil and will never evaporate away (and are highly acidic), the oil never gets hot enough to lubricate the engine and the mixtures are permanently rich and causing accelerated bore wear.
If it does another 40k miles without issues I'll be amazed.

Not being flippant but for that kind of mileage i would cycle or walk.

Now you can see why I stay clear of low mileage cars :roll:
The higher the miles the more reliable and trusted the car is
I have 188k on my Jag, never steps a foot out, 187k on the Renault, a super car, 440k on the Volvo (3rd engine mind :mrgreen These were just a fraction of my high miler's and can say they just keep going, the low mileage cars, well lets say they were hard work and cost a fortune to run. M Reg 41k Escort!!!! I wont even go there

 

[triumphstag]

Ok, I will cover the elephant in the room.

The thing that nobody has mentioned yet is that the head gasket will have gone for a reason (generally overheating). At this point we don't know what the cause is, so we don't know if it's going to happen again. It could be something as simple as a blocked radiator, or there could be problems with the head such as mentioned above it having been porous in which case just throwing a new gasket onto it will not work for long.

It could be that the Waterways in the block or in the head are all caked up with gunge through not having regular and correct antifreeze/coolant changes.

My concern is that the garage will just fit a new head gasket water pump and cambelt, and say there we go job done and then in 1000 miles or less it will go again.

Callumcco, you strike me as the kind of person that will take the garages word for what is wrong at face value, which is not unreasonable, but as many of us on here know, garages can get it wrong, and typically when you take it back as still not fixed you pay again.

As above, I would want the garage to be telling me what caused the head gasket to go (water pump and cambelt changes are normal good practice things to change when doing the head gasket) so don't take this as a diagnosis, or anything other than doing the job.

It might be that the radiator is knackered and the car will just overheat again.

I'm sorry to say this but you should not have a classic car (and as a classic car enthusiast, a 25 year old basic Astra is pushing the defenition of classic somewhat) what you have is an old car. Now an old car will have all of the problems of a classic, with none of the value.

Classic or old cars, need their owner to have the ability to repair them themselves, or have lots of money to throw at them. With the greatest of respect, you seem to have neither.

Blindly assuming that the low mileage means a good car is misguided. At that age, mileage really is meaningless.

As for 4 miles per day , as said above, this is the worst possible combination of factors for any car, but an old car will suffer more, due to its age, and the fact that cars were not as well built back then.

Daily use of being put through the main stressful time for a car (when cold and not up to temp) on a wet road in the rain will quickly ruin that car. In many ways, a 2 mile trip twice a day is worse than a 20 mile trip each time.

 

[triumphstag]

To add:
at the very least, that car should have a full cooling system flush and the radiator should have a flow and pressure test before new coolant is added and is back on the road.

 

[triumphstag]

But what I done wrong?

What you did wrong by the way, is come in here, complaining about the problem you have, received lots of good advice, then ignored it all and did exactly what you came in to complain about!

It is really frustrating for us when you ask for advice, receive the same advice from multiple sources and then ignore it.

Now please don't take this as a personal attack, you asked and I am answering honestly.

We want to help you Callum (the length of this thread shows that) but we can't do so if you won't listen.

 

[00slk]

To add:
at the very least, that car should have a full cooling system flush and the radiator should have a flow and pressure test before new coolant is added and is back on the road.

I have used a de-scaler in the systems before now to try and reduce the build up that happens with limited mile engines. On the odd occasion we have used a filter catchment fitted into the top radiator hose that catches some larger particles, these gets trapped in the filter which can be cleaned out very easily.

 

[lwbnick]

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.

Job should be around £150 plus parts, it's pretty straight forward.

 

[onefortheroad]

Crush it .

 

[Calumcco]

Crush it .

Serious???

 

[onefortheroad]

I would before I spent 800 quid on a 200 quid job.

 

[m2287]

This has got to be a wind up...