W124 radiator

[The German Flower Pot]

my headgasket went bang and filled the cooling system with cream

after taking the bits apart the garage have said the rad needs replacing as the core was all rotten at the bottom

so they have said £250 + vat for a new rad

its a 1994 w124 3.2 24v auto with air con

so is this a good price?

any idea what merc would charge for it on its own and how much you could get a patent part for?

cheers

 

[television]

There are specialist firms out there that only do rads also GSF must be worth a few phone calls

 

[wireman]

I got a rad from Euro parts for my 124 250D auto, it cost £86, there cant be that much difference in the two so with luck it should cost much less than the quote you were given.

 

[Telegraph-Hill]

Hi,
a new one from GFS is 115 plus VAT. How do you kill your head gasket ?
This seems to be a racer board
Bye,
Oliver

 

[David Nock]

Radiators can be re-cored. Its an easy job for a specialist. Had one for a Mazda redone in Scunthorpe, North Lincs, last year. Cost £100 inc VAT.(Removal and refit by me). Like a new item after rebuild.
Perhaps the rad had lost water, causing the head gaskett to fail - the most likely cause of such failures in general terms.

 

[The German Flower Pot]

Hi,
a new one from GFS is 115 plus VAT. How do you kill your head gasket ?
This seems to be a racer board
Bye,
Oliver

How did i blow the head gasket on my 99,000 mles e320 coupe !

no idea, i normally spank the life out of my cars on motorways but that day i did 30 ish miles (15 miles there followed by a 3 hour stop then 15 miles back), and on the way back i got upto about 70 for a 1 min streach but the rest of the time i was doing about 20-40 mph

the garage said it was a very badly blown head gasket!

ive been told they can go at any time

still looking at around £1,000 for new rad, sending the head off to be tested & putting it all back together

annoying as that money was ment to be sent on a new 46" LCD tv

 

[The German Flower Pot]

more news if your at all interested

got the car back today with a £1,318 bill

new plugs
new coil packs
new radiator
new loom bit
new liquids
new gasket
new other bits

so get the car and the car starts juddering and missfiring

so they come out and remove the top and find water in the sparkplugs from when it was pressure washer cleaned so dried it out and it works fine

i did 25 miles and parked up and saw oil and water on the floor and again ive got creamy stuff in the water system and again the water temp did not go above half way, check the oil and hafe the oil is now gone after 25 miles!

so my mechanic friend says its probably the "oil filter housing" as that has water feeds going through it and that the head gasket was probably not even gone in the first place

so i need advice please

what do i do now and how do i go about prooving that they changed the headgasket when it might not have been needed to be done

 

[The German Flower Pot]

any help or advice?

they have the car back now

but i paid £140 to get the car recoverd to my house at 2am on friday night

then paid another £40 to get the car taken to thier garage monday night

can i claim that back from them as its their fault the car broke down again?

 

[Ian B Walker]

I feel for you mate. It would seem to me that you have paid through the nose (and paid too much IMHO) for a shoddy job. I would certainly be seeking the advice of a solicitor on this matter. Before that though how about a nice kind word with the mechanics who did the job. They may just be as dumbfounded as you and offer some sort of deal.

 

[The German Flower Pot]

well i spoke to the manager of the garage this morning and said basically car had a problem, you spent £1,300 on it then i drove it 20 mins and it happend again so whatever you did for £1,300 did not need doing or indeed solve the original problem

so he rang me back this afternoon and said they are refunding £925 back to my credit card and that the car will be ready for thursday

i then asked what the problem was and he said the oil filter housing !

nice, just like i said from day 1 that id been told it was not the head gasket at all

now just gonna be charged for new oil filter housing and labour, any ideas on that cost?

 

[Ian B Walker]

Its usually the gasket that goes on them. Take about an hours labour and about £5 (max) for the gasket.

 

[The German Flower Pot]

cheers for that but they have orderd a new one, hould i ask for the old one back

would you be able to just list a quick list of the work they would need to do like remove jibblits and straighten the bendy bits ect so that when they bill me ill have a rough idea of time and works done so they cant rip me off and how much would the offending beast to buy

thanks