18 June 2012
Some of you may know that my previous ZS was sold after it started to lose coolant. My dad gave me his ZS to help me out.
Anyway, the Head Gasket went when I was in London on Friday. People say not to drive a car when the head gasket goes, but I had no choice really as I was in Central London.
Anyway, question time:
My dad had the head gasket replaced last october. Obviously the garage did a sub-standard job, so do I:-
- Kick off at the garage (whom I have now heard lots of bad things about) and demand they fix their bodge job
- Take it to a different garage, pay £500 odd, struggle to afford anything for a month
- Sell it as it is for spares and repair, buy a banger with whatever it goes for
- Give it back to my Dad, buy a banger, struggle to afford anything for a month
- Give up on cars and walk. Also grow my hair and hug trees
- Take up MGs offer of giving £2000 part exchange for old Rovers/MGs, 0% deposit, £149 a month, but 40% deposit, which would mean a loan for the deposit, and being skint for about 10 years plus
- Take up the local Ford dealers offer of minimum £1300 part exchange for any vehicle and buy a brand new Fiesta for £169 a month, £169 deposit, and be skint for about 5 years
- Head but a wall repeatedly
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19 December 2008
Sorry to hear about your problem.
If The car is otherwise good dont scrap it. £500 might be tough right now but all the other options are more expensive. I am sure with some research you will find a garage who know what they are doing.
If you buy a new or newer car you will be skint for ages as you say, unless you could manage with something like a 107/Aygo where the finance costs will probably be covered by the fuel and insurance saving.
If you buy an old car it will probably need loads spending on it when you get it as very few old cars are sold with full service history, good tyres etc. If you do go down this route, buy Japanese! But it might be worth a look on ebay/autotrader to see if you can find any one owner gems being sold as their owners have now died or given up driving (the cars owned by old people are often very well looked after even if they have the odd dent and scratch!).
6 November 2007
Obviously the garage did a sub-standard job
Kick off at the garage (whom I have now heard lots of bad things about) and demand they fix their bodge job
Firstly, calm down dear. You go to the garage, armed with the receipt from the previous repair, explain the problem and that they need to make it good.
Take it to a different garage, pay £500 odd, struggle to afford anything for a month
Only after you've gone back to the previous garage and exhausted all attempts at reason. Then you hit them with the bill from the next garage (having already told the former, in writing, that is what you will do)
If you don't want to do either of the above, and want to follow one of the other points you brought up (nice use of bullets, by the way), then that is up to you, but if that is the only problem with the car now, and that you forsee for the near-intermediate future, then give the further repair a go.
Edit: You numpty! If you were in central London, then you should have abandoned it in Whitehall or Parliament Square. That way it would have very helpfully been blown up for you, by our very efficient security services; insurance payout (unless there is a "Prevention of Terrorism" clause, that is).
If I knew what I was getting into, I wouldn't have done it...and I would have been wrong.
17 July 2009
Why do you have to buy a Fiesta for £169 a month and be skint for five years? Why not just get a say, 3 grand loan out and get a decent car like a Focus for example, and only pay around £80 a month for four years or £69 over five years. Or just borrow 2k. You can get a crackin' car for 2 grand.
K series engines head gasket issues are more complex than a standard engine, and it's not always a guaranteed fix even after the work's been done. http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=243523
Or pay the £500 for the garage repair and be skint for a month. A month will fly by.
Hope you get it sorted.
17 July 2009
Edit: You numpty! If you were in central London, then you should have abandoned it in Whitehall or Parliament Square. That way it would have very helpfully been blown up for you, by our very efficient security services; insurance payout (unless there is a "Prevention of Terrorism" clause, that is).
Ha, excellent idea. That tourist got his Mondeo boot blown off the other day, poor fella.
29 October 2007
Hi Por, sorry to hear about the demise of your ZS, anyway, was the job warranted?,is it outside this period?, if so, your up the creek mate,hard one to take i know, but what to do?,well, to be optomistic, i'd go for the Fiesta route, granted you've got a Wedding coming up and that's a lot of stress in it's self, but, even if you get a poverty spec one, it will come with a belt n braces warranty, and fingers crossed, nothing major should go wrong with it, a mate of mine years ago used to bu a car for £100 (i'm going way back)run it for a year, then scrapped it and bought another and so on, the rub was he did all his own fettling so other than parts (from a scrappy) his out lay was minimal, nowadays that's not on, so i'd look a the Ford, an idea, ask your Bank about financing it?, don't know if that option is open to you?
Peter Cavellini.
6 April 2010
Was the ZS a car prone to headgasket issues, if so bad luck to get two on the trot.
Or
Is it driver related....just a thought, because if you drive it anything like some of the local lads do round here then i am not suprised.
15 June 2012
You should have fit a Freelander head gasket - that's what I'd do with a K-Series engine.
Anyway, unlucky mate! I'd suggest that you give it back to your dad and search for a cheap and reliable old car like Stevie did on here a while back when he bought a secondhand Corolla. We could help you find a bargain motor that won't let you down.
2 July 2009
Sorry to hear about your misfortune . If you get no joy out of the garage why not get a Haynes manual and a mechanically minded mate have a go yourself sounds like there is not much to lose and surely a head gasket will only cost about £50 .
Ok if it was bad the head may have warped too but I would at least give it a try .
17 November 2009
Tuppence Worth: My limited experience of head gasket failures is that once they've blown, get it fixed and punt the car as a trade-in at first opportunity, as they tend to blow again. Even skimming the head didn't resolve it for me - repeat failure within a few thousand miles... probably not what you want to hear, but there it is...
20 May 2012
TWO LESSONS TO BE LEARNT
1. As much as you maybe in love with the ZS or other deriviants - they are not the bees knees and they will give you problems constantly with gaskets and gearboxes are not unknown to go plop on you either. Even wheel bearings are a regular issue. So lesson number one is - Buy something that is more reliable - and wait for a while till you can afford something better.
2. Why get married? Living in sin is more interesting and even the tax man helps !!!
what's life without imagination