My brother is at uni in southampton, just phoned us up to say his car's engine is knackered, drinking water like a fish, loads of blue smoke from the exhaust, won't idle, gutless etc,
I've diagnosed a blown head gasket over the phone, i'd been suspecting this for a little while as it's been using water more and more over the past year, and i could never find any leaks.
Anyhoo, we live 250 miles away from him, so he's gonna have to get his car fixed in Southampton, problem is finding a garage that can be trusted not to rip him off.. he is a bit thick when it comes to cars.
His car is a 1994 peugeot 306, 1.9 TD, he swears he's only driven 1 mile since he noticed the smoke and lack of power, so hopefully the head will get away with a light skim.
What i need now is a garage in Southampton who dosen't charge the earth, (so main dealer is out, unless anyone knows of one doing a special fixed price on head gaskets :) and can be trusted, i have a deep rooted hatred of garages my self, even when i was forced to get a trusted engeneering firm in Newark re-condition my van's (2.8 litre TDI) engine after it ate an exhaust valve at 3500 rpm on the A1, they managed to screw the engine up (crank oil seal turned inside out, injector bleed off pipes not connected right, throttle cable dammaged (cost me £65 for a new one.. this is a truck based van) BPE devise on the pump dammaged due to over tightening the banjo bolt, wrong turbo fitted so no boost untill 2500 rpm, then things like a water filler can left in the engine bay, found a socket in the bell housing and so on)
So i can't trust garages at all, but we've got to find one that can be trusted by someone who knows very little about engines, to let them do a pretty big job on his only means of transport.. and him be able to pay for it out of what's left of his student loan.
Help