Hdi'm Confused...

[Welly]

I know the feeling, you'd probably need £500.00's worth of gear before starting the job yourself.

[scotty73]

The closest i've done to it was a rocker cover gasket on my old S reg Escrote van in the late 90's

We've been looking at trading in AGAIN but we seem to be drawn to looking at French cars all the time... And again everytime we look my mind goes back to getting it fixed.... I've never been this confused with a car before.

[jasper5]

I'm a little confused myself tbh.
Where were we up to?
Did you say you have a new head to be fitted and the cost is £600 in labour...is that plus gaskets and machining?
There's no doubt the job is a big one...the garage have probably based their estimate of labour cost on the trade book labour times.
I did a Citroen C2 head gasket job this week...finished it yesterday, that cost £400 including labour and parts, but nowhere near the same type of job as yours, although it turned out to be a bitch in the end I was feeling crap as well which didn't help.
Regarding whether you should get it done or not....you have to weigh up the cost of replacing the car against repairing it, plus if you know your car you might think the devil you know etc.

[scotty73]

I do tend to confuse on times (Apologies for that) it's my joking about nature.

The £600 is labour alone i already have a skimmed and pressure tested head plus all gaskets and bolts.

My normal mechanic was going to do it for £130 to £150 but he's had to go mobile and don't fancy the job at the roadside... Or maybe he's looked into it and been put off.

[jasper5]

I was confused because I haven't been keeping up with the story...I didn't know you settled for the head gasket being the problem....the last I knew was the EGR being the problem....anyway...

£130-150 probably isn't realistic for the amount of time needed to do the job.

[scotty73]

£130-150 probably isn't realistic for the amount of time needed to do the job.

I've started to realise that mate, how do you price a job like this?
I tried the EGR bypass and had the same problem... It's been a long old dicking about process if I'm honest and not sure what to do for the best.

[jasper5]

£130-150 probably isn't realistic for the amount of time needed to do the job.

I've started to realise that mate, how do you price a job like this?
I tried the EGR bypass and had the same problem... It's been a long old dicking about process if I'm honest and not sure what to do for the best.

As I said earlier, there's an Autodata book with repair times listed which the trade use as a guide when pricing up jobs.
Personally I look at 10 hours labour plus parts, plus machining....though I didn't get that with the C2.

Are you losing a lot of water? Is the temperature high?
Have you tried running the car with the pressure cap slightly loose?

[scotty73]

£130-150 probably isn't realistic for the amount of time needed to do the job.

I've started to realise that mate, how do you price a job like this?
I tried the EGR bypass and had the same problem... It's been a long old dicking about process if I'm honest and not sure what to do for the best.

As I said earlier, there's an Autodata book with repair times listed which the trade use as a guide when pricing up jobs.
Personally I look at 10 hours labour plus parts, plus machining....though I didn't get that with the C2.

Are you losing a lot of water? Is the temperature high?
Have you tried running the car with the pressure cap slightly loose?

I topped the water up on the weekend and tonight the wife said the warning light came on... At a guess I'd say 500 to 750ml per week on 150 to 200 miles... Temp only gets to half but don't kick the fan in at all... Not tried driving with the cap loose but i did put it on wrong a fw weeks back with the rubber ring twisted... Lost a lot of water that day.

[scotty73]

Is it an engine out job John?

[dirtydirtydiesel]

Nah, you can do it in situ, But it's a bit of a pig. Lot's of scraped forarms

[scotty73]

Nah, you can do it in situ, But it's a bit of a pig. Lot's of scraped forarms

I can imagine that, it was bad enough removing the pipe off the EGR cooler... I really am tempted to cut my losses to be honest especially after the jaw dropping worse case scenario quote of £600 labour... But I do have all the bits here ready so we'll see.

[scotty73]

Update.
A good friend of mine persuaded his mechanic college to do the work for me so Friday before last i dropped it off ready for him to start Saturday after work... From what I can work out he worked on it 6 to 7 hours on Saturday and about 8 on Sunday... Poor fuka everything was seized even the glow plugs.

It seemed to still pressurise for the first few days so jacked it up and bled it and since then I've done 360 miles (80 Towing) without any coolant loss or pressurising...

[Welly]

I think you've done the right thing. That's a lot of work, it doesn't help that the engine lies back towards the bulkhead I suppose.

It's a big job to do but you coulda bought something else with unknown troubles lurking....

[scotty73]

I think you've done the right thing. That's a lot of work, it doesn't help that the engine lies back towards the bulkhead I suppose.

It's a big job to do but you coulda bought something else with unknown troubles lurking....

That was my biggest worry with replacing it.. Plus I didn't see anything I liked around here to do the job.

[jasper5]

Update.
A good friend of mine persuaded his mechanic college to do the work for me so Friday before last i dropped it off ready for him to start Saturday after work... From what I can work out he worked on it 6 to 7 hours on Saturday and about 8 on Sunday... Poor fuka everything was seized even the glow plugs.

It seemed to still pressurise for the first few days so jacked it up and bled it and since then I've done 360 miles (80 Towing) without any coolant loss or pressurising...

Glad you got it sorted in the end

I was right about the head gasket after all