Rover 214 - Blown Head Gasket

Hi

Can anyone tell me how much I would expect to pay, at a local garage (not a franchise), to have a blown head gasket repaired?

Also, the cars at around 60k miles, would it also be worth having the cambelt replaced at the same time?

tia

Reply to
wendy
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It really depends on the severeity of how much the engine overheated and if you stopped right away, whether its been loosing water for awhile or not. Basically it boils down(!) to if and how much the head is warped when its removed, and or whether there are any signs of steam erostion etc etc etc

The K series are abit of a tin of worms.

Bear in mind your water loss may be a blown inlet manifold gasket- make tripley sure its not this first.

Allow £400 at worst, it may be less if the head doesnt need to be skimmed.

Always change the cambelt when its disturbed.

Tim..

Reply to
Tim (Remove NOSPAM.

The first time it went on my 214 @ 27k miles, it cost me £420 in Derby in

2001

One year on at 40Kmiles it cost me £450 in London.

I no longer own the car.

As for having the cambelt done at the same time, if it were any other car I would say yes, but as it is a K-series Rover I'd say no. If you have any sense you will sell it instead...Sorry to be so negative but I was really disappointed with that car!.

Scott

Reply to
Scott Mills

If the head gasket went again after such a short time then either it wasn't replaced properly the first time or the underlying cause of the HGF wasn't diagnosed and repaired. 'K' series engines have a bit of a reputation but they aint that bad!

Nope, sorry, I can't figure out your logic there! At 60k the cam belt is due a change.

If the OP has any sense they will entrust the work to a good garage. Not only should the garage check the head for warpage and skim if necessary, they should also use the uprated gasket from Rover (with the steel dowels) and they absolutely must find out what caused the HGF in the first place. HGF is often the result of a weakness in the cooling system so all components should be checked and the system pressure tested IMO.

Reply to
Michael Cotton

Many thanks to all for the advice, its appreciated

Reply to
wendy

Just out of interest...what reg. is the car?

cheers Glen

Reply to
Glen

T
Reply to
wendy

1 sugar please
Reply to
JULIAN HALES

Ahaaa hahahahaha ha ha. Funny. Not. Stick with the program. Ah I see you have the name Julian, that explains everything. Ahem, back to the topic in hand.

T Reg. Whats the book price of it? Like others have said, it MIGHT be cheaper to write off than to repair, depending on condition. Or repair at cheapest poss, then flog it while you can (maybe not tempting fate by even running it whilst its advertised, except maybe keeping the battery ticking over by starting for five minutes a day). A bit drastic, but do you know what you are dealing with with owning a Rover?

Rovers are alright so long as you understand them for what they are made of. I had a nice 820SLi that was company maintened but still had all the stuff go like you did (just a little later at 80ishK miles). Including steering rack etc too. I only had it for a year or so and it just was a pain in the arse in many areas.

Rover's and MG's CAN be high maintenance - just depends whether you're really into that or not. I've gone Skoda, never looked back. Pain free car ownership with VW style 'reliability' (and daresay practically image now) but for sensible cash. Same may apply for Seat.

Tone

Reply to
TonyF

A place used to work at runs a fleet of Seat Incas... they're no better than anything else, expensive relays to do with the preheaters cost way too much to replace, and have gone on nearly all of the ones they've run to high miles.

-- JackH

Reply to
JackH

Oh my word, where do I start with Seat?

I chose my new company car, a Seat Toledo 1.8, it arrived and all was fine until after 480 miles in wales late at night it broke down, took me about 6 hours to get home as it had to be towed by the AA to the dealer (in manchester) next to the office so I could pick up my ex company car. I got it back 1 week later and it broke down on the 2nd journey out just as I got to Birmingham, again towed back. Now this carried on for about 2 months, they would even give it me back to get the problem again as it wasn't "storing codes" so I had to drive it round knowing they had done nothing to it.

I got them to give me a courtesy car for until they had fixed the fault and they gave me a brand spanking new, just in, not even been checked over Leon. Now this WAS a bag of cr#p, I had to let them fix the faulty seatbelt before I could take it, the glovebox shut once and then the handle came off and a cover for the tow eye fell off on the M6.

They had had mine for about 3 months now, they decided I was putting to many miles on the courtesy car and paid a hire company to give me one of theirs, I ended up with a 1.4 A class, to do in excess of 600 miles per day!

They gave me mine back which broke down before I had even got off the forecourt, and so I got a new hire car, a Nissan Almera.

Eventually after 4 months, Seat bought the car back off the company and so all was resolved inthe end BUT I would never touch another Seat and as this had the same engine as VW's and Skoda and Audi I will never buy one of them either. My 1991 Rover 214SI was more reliable than that!

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson

Did they ever have any problems with the clutch pedals falling apart? That happened to mine - the bit on the clutch pedal that the pushrod thing that links to the slave cylinder and is spot welded together came undone, cost me £180 to get it done at the Seat dealer. And I know I was a mug for taking it there, could have probably got it done for £70-80 tops elsewhere, but I took it there in the hope that it'd get done as a goodwill thing, as it was literallly *just* out of warranty.

Oh, and does anyone want my Seat Inca? 2001 Y reg, 1.9SDI, 82k, recent cambelt (main dealer), about 8 months' MOT, tax run out, £2k absolutely no offers???

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

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