Garage misdiagnosed problem - who pays to put right?
Discussion
2 part problem. bought a 62 plate Octavia VRS private @4k with 135k on. next day on a run it gets to temp then the heaters go cold. kid who sold the car said he knew of no issues, hes got radio silent at the moment but i'll come back to him at a later date. wanted to know whats wrong with the car.
armchair diagnoses via forum points to head gasket. little pressure in the coolant but not using any and running well. happened to a few on the forum, causing similar issues. took to a VAG specialist who said it was the thermostate. car need cambelt and pump doing anayway. i asked several times is it defo not the HG, even insisting they did a sniff test which came back negative. aksed what would happen if once the work is done the same thing still happened and the garage said theyd look after me therefore paid the £620 for thermostate, belt and pump.
problem persists. heats fine until 90 degress and then goes cold at idle. revving the engine make it go warm again. garage now says its the heater matrix blocked. to be fiar they can suffer with this but that wouldnt explain the heater working fine all the way upto temp. i assume at idle the gasses are leaking into the collant casuing an air lock, and when you rev the negine the pressure pushes it through.
i bought a sniff test off ebay, blue liquid turns green if CO2 in the coolant and it comes back positive. checked again and same result. checked the test kit on my golf and came back negative. rang garage and took it back again. they did 2 of their 'sniff tests' (wife was there not me so unsure what they did) and came back negative! she got the ebay one and it shows positive. they rang me at work with a price for HG and said £750. i said id be inclined just to pay the differnece between what i have and what it should have cost in the first place. he said he'd get back to me.
when i rang he'd gone home. we're back in there tomo where he rang the wife and said he was getting another snif test tomo.
where do i stand? im going to insist on just paying the difference, whish i assume will be £400, and not a penny more. will mean ive sunk £1000 into a £4k motor, i'll be chasing the previous owner too as its clear hes had my life
armchair diagnoses via forum points to head gasket. little pressure in the coolant but not using any and running well. happened to a few on the forum, causing similar issues. took to a VAG specialist who said it was the thermostate. car need cambelt and pump doing anayway. i asked several times is it defo not the HG, even insisting they did a sniff test which came back negative. aksed what would happen if once the work is done the same thing still happened and the garage said theyd look after me therefore paid the £620 for thermostate, belt and pump.
problem persists. heats fine until 90 degress and then goes cold at idle. revving the engine make it go warm again. garage now says its the heater matrix blocked. to be fiar they can suffer with this but that wouldnt explain the heater working fine all the way upto temp. i assume at idle the gasses are leaking into the collant casuing an air lock, and when you rev the negine the pressure pushes it through.
i bought a sniff test off ebay, blue liquid turns green if CO2 in the coolant and it comes back positive. checked again and same result. checked the test kit on my golf and came back negative. rang garage and took it back again. they did 2 of their 'sniff tests' (wife was there not me so unsure what they did) and came back negative! she got the ebay one and it shows positive. they rang me at work with a price for HG and said £750. i said id be inclined just to pay the differnece between what i have and what it should have cost in the first place. he said he'd get back to me.
when i rang he'd gone home. we're back in there tomo where he rang the wife and said he was getting another snif test tomo.
where do i stand? im going to insist on just paying the difference, whish i assume will be £400, and not a penny more. will mean ive sunk £1000 into a £4k motor, i'll be chasing the previous owner too as its clear hes had my life
Baldchap said:
JHeardy said:
I’ve seen this issue before on a customers skoda, same symptoms, at idle heater was cold off idle heated up fine.
We found that the coolant pipes feeding the heater matrix went cold at idle,
We surmised that it was an issue with the HG interfering with coolant flow (I believe from memory it also used coolant slightly)
The customer decided on that basis given its age and mileage not to proceed any further
Wasn't a young lad with a 62 plate VRS a fortnight ago was it? We found that the coolant pipes feeding the heater matrix went cold at idle,
We surmised that it was an issue with the HG interfering with coolant flow (I believe from memory it also used coolant slightly)
The customer decided on that basis given its age and mileage not to proceed any further
thanks for the replies. you pays your money and takes your chance at this part of the market, i appreciate that. its certainly no banger tho, its being meticulously maintained with a folder full of recepits and all motorway miles - this is the ad
https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...
since been reading some more and the egr cooler can cause similar issues, easier to diagnosis by bypassing. cars back in the garage today.
waynecyclist said:
Doubt the egr cooler will be the issue.
Have you had the coolant checked, the silicone bag breaks down in the expansion tank and blocks the matrix.
youre right, cooler usually goes other way aparantly and makes a smoke machine out of your exhaust. only the mk 3 had the silicone bag i think.Have you had the coolant checked, the silicone bag breaks down in the expansion tank and blocks the matrix.
back from garage and showed up CO2 in coolant on a different test tehy did. garage owner wasnt happy with the testing machine he'd used previoulsy that showed negative 3 seperate times. hes only had it 3 mnths too.
he was good as gold with us tho, hes going to contact teh supplier he bought it off s its celarly defective. if it had come back positive the first time he could have done HG, belt and pump and left out the thermostate, so just one big labour bill instead of 2. hes going to contact me this afternoon and let me know where we're at
Thesprucegoose said:
I think you need to stop and have a think here. He can change the HG but how long has it been run like that, what about the head? it can consume money sometimes better to get rid or get new engine.
Do these suffer from head bolts stretch as well? Also remaps don't help the problem.
Has the head been tested?
cheers, appreciate that. the head will be tested and skimmed when it comes off. the car runs like a dream, uses no water and pulls well. the car has been well looked after and we've just changed the belt and pump. Do these suffer from head bolts stretch as well? Also remaps don't help the problem.
Has the head been tested?
Edited by Thesprucegoose on Tuesday 25th February 12:49
i cld chop it in at a dealers and get 3.5k tops. mean losing a grand in a month. i actually quite like the car and havnt found anything else local i like.
shld i have bit the bullet and paid 15k for the E class merc estate i wanted to get?! i cldnt stomach losing 2k a year on it? could go mad thinking about it!
swagmeister said:
I read this as " bought a 8 yrs old car with 100k+ miles, I knew it needed money spent, now it needs more spent, have remorse so want someone else to pay".
disagree. bought 8yr old car that was due a belt and pump change so neogiated £600 off to cover the cost. told car was in great condition, several inches of invoices and a full service history to back it up. test drive showed up nothing, approx 20 mins and 5-10 miles.get car home and take out for a hour the next day and notice at temp theres a fault. which ends up been the most expensive thing on a car. and a quater of said cars value.
would i have bought it if i knew the HG was goosed? no i wouldnt. did the owner know it was goosed and rob me? unlikely to know but if i was going to rip someone off i woulddnt rip me off. and not from his home address, he could have quite easily PX'd it or sell it to someone more likely not to pursue things.
my guess is because he did motorway miles all the time the engine pressure puched the bubbles from the HG fault through the heater matrix and didnt have time to block it.
and truth be known he was a nice guy.
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