Any help?
The garage doing my last MOT has apparently blown the head gasket.
Are they reponsible for the damage and subsequent work?
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How do you think they blew the head gasket? Were they treating the car differently to the way a normal driver would treat it?
I'm not certain that it is possible to cause an engine to blow it's HG - I suspect it would have happened to you, had you been driving it at the time.
If you really think they caused it to blow, then get it repaired, and issue a county court summons for the amount of the repair. I doubt you'll get far.
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what is garages answer roders?
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If all they were doing was the MOT, then no you have no comeback on them in any shape or form.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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What about if they blow the engine of your main dealer maintained diesel, by revving it to the red line 3 times? This something I'd not get near in my own car so I can't see why it is part of the 'test' - it isn't meant to be a test to destruction!
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You are warned about this prior to the test, and the warning says if it blows - Tough, it should have been in good enough state to handle it.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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>>revving it to the red line 3 times? This something I'd not get near in my own car
Armitage Shanks I feel you are not using your engine correctly by not reaching the red line occassionally. With my diesel I usually red line it in 1st and second to clear any muck out of the exhaust on a daily basis. If you rev too far then the rev limiter cuts in and the revs drop. This is a safety device built into the engine by the manufacturer to prevent a complete run away of revs.
How do I know this? Many years ago my Father had a Japanese diesel engine in a yacht that would over rev and could only be shut down but throwing a decompression lever. The distributor sent their chief engineer to look at the problem. He dismantled the govenors and could see no problem. After he reassembled it, the problem recurred. After dismantling it again, he noticed the plate holding the govening weights was slightly bent and allowed the engine to rev too fast. Once flattened to the original shape, the probelm was solved.
This engineer maintained that you could never do any harm to a diesel engine by reving it to the rev limit, in fact he stated it was good to put the engine under full load. I know a yacht engine is slightly different to a car engine, but provided the cam belt is changed within the recommended interval no harm should come to the engine.
The manufacturer deemed the engine can take it to a set rev limit. An engine is certainly not designed to be at the rev limit constantly, but going to the line for a short while will do no harm. That is my opinion and nothing will change my mind.
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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If all they were doing was the MOT, then no you have no comeback on them in any shape or form. ------------------------------ TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
cant totally agree with that as they still have a duty to be sensible while in their care.
Ive had many cars over the years boil up at mot time due to the fan switch failing and the mot man has always terminated the fast idle emmissions test till i had shorted the terminals with a bit of wire
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Dont agree. The car should be fit for the task.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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And the brakes should work perfectly etc. But if a mechanic drove the car recklessly and they didn't?
he has the same duty of care over the engine. It has warning guages/lights to alert him of overheating oil pressure loss etc. Now if a timing belt failed, after he had issued a warning that is different!
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To be fair, ever since I've had diesels, the tester has always asked me when the cambelt was last done before the MOT emissions test goes ahead, and asked if I was happy for the test to go ahead.
I hate this test. It puts the engine in a condition / situation it was never designed to operate under, and which no owner with an ounce of mechanical sympathy would even entertain.
Cheers
DP
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Agreed, I hate the diesel test. So does my tester. But all he can do is warn you.
But other damage may be preventable.
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If the car is in good order the MOT test should not be an issue.
IIRC the diesel particulate test allow three cycles however my TDCi on 107k miles simply required reving to 4000rpm or so for only a few seconds and was well within tolerances first time. I guess if the engine is worn or in a poor state of tune then the chances of a test induced failure are higher though equally the chances of failing the test are higher too. Hence it is in the owner's interest to look after the vehicle and ensure that it is adequately maintained. Certainly if applicable a cambelt should be changed within the manufacturer's recomended age/mileage whether or not an MOT test is due.
That being said it is clearly possible for a garage to mistreat a previously healthy engine, perhaps the answer is to always be present when your car is tested.
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I was not warned and apparently, and I could only see from the viewing gallery, during the emmissions part of the test the mechanic managed to boil the engine over.
This had never happened during normal driving and I had never had any water loss.
this is a petrol engine with 73K miles on the clock.
the garage response was "Tough. Nothing to do with us"
Rodders.
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I was not warned and apparently, and I could only see from the viewing gallery, during the emmissions part of the test the mechanic managed to boil the engine over. This had never happened during normal driving and I had never had any water loss. this is a petrol engine with 73K miles on the clock. the garage response was "Tough. Nothing to do with us" Rodders
Seems to me that the cooling system must have been faulty, on the otherhand the mechanic should have been responsible enough to keep an eye on the temp gauge as he would if he was driving it so should bear some responsibility, difficult to adise as to how to proceed, perhaps a friendly but firm letter to the MD or owner of the business.
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My exact thoughts Cheddar.
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I can't think of anything a mechanic could do that would make it boil over - unless he unplugged or jammed the radiator fan.
Many years ago my car failed an MOT (or maybe it was "unable to test") as the fan was faulty and it started boiling during the test. My use of the car would never have shown that problem up, never getting stuck in traffic for long periods.
Martin
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This used to be a bit of a favourite with BMW's. The viscous fan coupling tends to get a bit 'weak' with age but still basically works OK in normal UK driving because the engine is seldom left to run for long periods without some airflow. However, during the MoT emissions tests the testers can leave them running for a long period inside the workshop and this seems to push the visous fan 'over the edge' - it doesn't shift enough air and the engine boils.
I remember back in 2001/2002 I was asked to checkout a BMW 530i (M30 engine) and then take it to MoT. I did some servicing work and then had the car running in my yard for about 30 mins and temp gauge was spot on. Later in the day, in the MoT bay, it started to overheat. Fortunately the tester (a mate of mine) was on the ball and turned off the engine. The viscous fan coupling had just failed (would 'freewheel' even when hot). If it had been left running the HG would have gone - M30/35 don't take much to blow a headgasket.
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