head gasket gone after 4 months, am i bein scammed by garage?
 

im in abit of a dilema, so any advice would be great.
ive had my first scooby now for 8 months,which is now turning into hell. got the car from a dealer, and after 3 months the head gaskets went. took car back to dealer and they got an outside garage to do the work. got car back and all was fine. then driving along just over a week ago and the car suddenly loses power and engine light comes on. so take it to a local garage. they hook it up to comp and find all cylinders miss-firing, and do a pressure test. they tell me the head gaskets have blown again in a big way, and that the possible cause is that the heads were not skimmed when done the first time. this is now 4 months after having them done, so i take car back to dealer telling them what this garage has said and that the work was not done right. the dealer said they would take a look and ring me. they have now had my car over a week and have not rang me. so i called them yesterday to see wots happening. the dealer says that the garage that dont the work has came over to the dealers and looked over my car, and says the problem is not the head gasket. so someone here is lying to me , my guess the dealer cos they dont want to foot the bill again. my problem is where do i go from here. what are my rights?

Has the dealer is confirmed that its not the head gaskets? if so are they giving you info of what has cause the problem :wonder:

no dealer has not confirmed, and they have not given me any other cause to the problem. dealer just told me that the garage they use had done the job properly the first time so it cant be the problem. so basically telling me the garage i took the car to, are lying when they say the problem is the head gasket.

Did the engine overheat? If the head gaskets were "blown" you would have experienced water loss due to the water being forced out via the cap under pressure. These use multi layer metal gaskets and aren't prone to failures very often.
A compression test doesn't necessarily confirm a head gasket failure. Was there a lot of blue smoke when it failed?

it was early morning and dark when it first accured so dont know if there was smoke. was some water loss but temp gauge didnt rise to top like it did the first time the gaskets went. the worst problem was engine vibration when driving and when stationary the whole car would shake.

It obviously needs further investigation. The bottom line is, they are going to cover it under warranty or they aren't. There is a possibility of a piston failure here.

how much would a piston failure set me back roughly? its been nearly 2 weeks that the garage has had my car now. with no info on wot the problem is. just rang them and the manager wants me to go in on wednesday to talk about my car. yet wont tell me anything over the fone to what is wrong with my car.

What I'd call a proper rebuild starts at around £2500. Your best bet is to just go along with it, but don't let them take any money off you without getting independent advice. If you'd like to talk about it after you've met up with the man, give me a ring on 01752 345880 and I'll give you an opinion.

cheers for the help and advice alan. will see what they say on wednesday.

been givin the run around again. rang the manager this morning to see wot time he could see me, as i wouldhave to leave work for an hour. got told he was in a meeting and to call back in 20mins. gave it over that time and called back, only to be told he was still in meeting. so they said to leave my number and he would call me as soon as he got out of meeting. and surprise surprise, i got no call back and im still left not knowing wots happening with my car. it will be 2 weeks tomorrow that they have had it for, in which i have not recieved a single fone call to tell me wots goin on.

where do i go from here. have i any rights, or do garages do as they please.

I have learnt my lesson over the past few years mate.
What garage is it a Main Dealer I hope! If not then then your have an uphill battle. Get it all in writing, write to the service manager first explaining everything and you want a answer in 24 hour or your writing to the MD. If its a Subaru dealer then phone Subaru UK and log the complait.
I done this on a couple of Alfa Romeo`s I had and was plesantly supprised of the out come.

the garage is, the value car centre in norwich, norfolk. they deal in secondhand cars. they were very helpful to start, then once money had changed hands it went down hill. ive been advised to contact trading standards over the matter. the thing is i need a car for my partner and 2 young kids. my partner has to regulary go to docters and hospital. its caused so many problems not having a car for 2 weeks. im still looking at, at least another 2 weeks to have the car fixed.

Citizen Advice Bureau is your friend .... visit them.

Keep a diary - note everything with dates and times.

Ring the garage and state that they are forcing you to take legal advice - you NEED to talk to them. State that they should show willingness - at the very least, as it looks bad when they ignore you.

And get an independant diagnosis of whats wrong - if it is the head gaskets then the earlier job was a bodge job .... and they should re-do. But, I suspect it is something else

:( Not looking good, IMHO I would never buy a car from any garage unless there a main dealer, even if the car you brought wasnt the dealers franchise they do tend to get thing sorted in the end, and you will get a loan car while yours is in the garage.
Your only route is legal action and citizans advise I`m affraid. :mad:
Buy from a main dealer, or you just as well buy privately and get it cheaper and take a gamble.
Hope you get it sorted mate. ;)

latest update.

i took some time of work this afternoon to pay the dealer a visit. managed to speak to the manager who said he lost my number yesturday thats why he didnt call me. i was then informed that the garage that they used to have my car done has now closed down. he has rang around some other garages in the city but they dont deal with subaru's. he then said its not really down to him as my warrenty has ran out, even though i told him the problem occured when it was still under warrenty. to cut a long story short, what he said he will do is, drive my car over to a mate of his on his way home tonight so he can have a look at my car to see wot the problem is. even though i told him that another garage has looked at it and said its the head gasket. once his mate has looked at it he will give me a call. im not holding my breath on getting any call back. so ive spoke to trading standards and am goin to put my complaint in writing and give them a time frame to get the work carried out.

ok garage have finally said they will sort my car out. after nearly a month of having it, they sent it of to a subaru dealer to check it out. surprise surprise it came back that both head gaskets have blown. turns out i was right all along and first garage had done a crap job first time round. so they said they would get the subaru dealer to fix my car, but want me to pay £400 towards the cost. i really need my car back so i agreed to pay the £400 and the garage will pay the rest. have i got a reasonable deal here. or am i a sucker! all i care about at the min is gettin my car back. and at least i know the job will be done proper this time by a subaru dealer.

well 400 is not gr8 ...but its better than paying the lot yr self , just make sure you have its in writting !1 and pay by creditcard

What exactly did you do wrong for them to want £400 from you ????

Mog

I had a similat issue over a clutch and paid £900 to get my car back. Then I wrote a letter using a template off the one shows website. If the fault apears within 6 months or so, even better in a warrenty periord, you should be free from cost. The law is clear, the cost of repair is down to the dealler as long as you gave them oppertunity to fix the problem and you didnt go daft getting repaired.

All in all, if a Subaru dealer is going to properly take care of it, I'd call that a fair deal. It sounds to me like the guy who sold you the car is pretty genuine, and I bet he's as ticked off as you that the other garage didn't fix it first time.

ring the subaru dealer who is supposed to be doing the work make sure they are doing the work and that the guy has not booked in with another billy bodger who will do both heads for "300 notes guvna"

i know what ur saying, and yeah i have checked. i know of the garage doing the work. and i asked for all paper work of everything done. as allen says above its pretty fair deal and at the end of all this hassle with them, im just wanting my car back now. least i now know the jobs being done by professionals and not knobs.

i would like to give many thanks to everyone on scoobynet who have been great with help and advice. a big thumbs up to all :thumb:

yr welcome