Club 80-90 Forums

Worse news from the garage today - the head gaskets gone.
What are my options guys?
They are quoting me a very rough 600 pounds so far.

Do I have permission to cry yet?

You should be happy. My whole engine was gone. Spending more than the double of your quote...

Permission to cry granted.

in fact, I'll grant permission for full blown sobbing


If you get it done for £600 I'll be gobsmacked - we are talking WBX, and not diesel?

Em
x

Head gasket on a WBX ? Are you sure your mechanic knows these engines.It's a 2.1 petrol Em.

I thought 600 pounds was a little low. I have a good relationship with the main mechanic, who will be back to work on Monday, as he's not around at the moment. They will give me a call back on Monday and try to give me a more realistic and concrete quote.
Its a petrol Em

Im thinking that the options are:

1. Get it fixed - keep van
2. Get it fixed - sell van
3. Get another engine put in ? (is that completely unrealistic?
4. Diesel engine (is that possible and are they less complex?)
5. Other... (please fill in this space!!!)

5.Get a mechanic who knows a WBX does not have a head gasket.

Hi Rob, but it must have - I have receipts from the last owner (who are my friends), showing that the head gasket had blown and was fixed, twice in the last 4 years...? I'm confused now.

The mechanic who was looking at the van told me he wanted to wait until the owner (the actual mechanic that I know well) comes back on Monday - he admitted that he'd not worked on these vans before, and wanted to make sure that I could get a clearer idea of the sort of work needed with a price.
Could it be that he's misdiagnosed? Still doesn't account for the fact that I have receipts showing that the vans head gasket blew twice in the last few years....odd.

Still doesn't account for the fact that I have receipts showing that the vans head gasket blew twice in the last few years....odd.

Perhaps another issue causing the failure.
Such as a blocked cooling system or if you have used the same mechanic, perhaps an incompetant mechanic?

Hi itchyfeet, the receipts are from a VW specialist. This is another mechanic...the mystery continues!

Well a head gasket should last many years if done properly, what will make it fail is overheating.

Overheating can happen from a blocked or faulty cooling system or lean burn of engine, maybe some other things that I have not thought of.

Perhaps the mechanics have been fixing the symptoms and not the cause.

Thanks Itchyfeet. The reason I took it to the garage is that i noticed fluid dripping onto a driveway that Id parked up on. On touching it, it seemed to be water. It happened again when I got home and at the time the van was full of moving house stuff, so I couldn't get to the engine. I then noticed the expansion tank was empty, so filled that up. I drove away and the light started flashing at me - when I got home again, I checked the water level and the actual water coolant tank was almost completely empty.
I don't know if that makes any sense to instantly diagnose the failure of the head gasket? Im not knowledgable enough.

Tis possible to drive like that for a good while (mine a year so far) providing you top up regularly. Depends how much its losing. Often it won't lose any at all when its hot.