Hi;
I really hope someone out there with a bit more car knowledge than myself can help me here. Don't get me wrong, I can just about change a tyre, know where the water, oil petrol etc goes, but that's about my knowledge and I think my garage is messing me about.

I'll try and keep this short, but please bear with me, it's a longish story! :)

I bought the above car (automatic) in May after my beloved Yaris died. I paid about £1700 for it as it was all I could afford. I think I made a hasty purchase, but small, cheap automatics are like hens teeth, I'm self employed and my daughter is autistic and needs running around to a lot of appointments (plus I live in the sticks) so being without a car was a nightmare.

Anyway, at the end of June, Piglet came to a dead stop wilst I was driving, no warning lights, no noise, nothing. I got recovery to take me to nearest garage which he said his family had used for years and was at end of my road. They said that my head gasket had gone, and charged me 500 pounds to fix it. The invoice states (I'm copying it here cos it's just jargon to me!) remove head from engine, strip down, have tested & faced, refit parts to head, then head to engine, fit new thermostat, cambelt kit & fanbelt. Head pressure tested & faced is also on invoice, together with plugs, oil filter, oil, head bolts & anti freeze.

I picked it up & went to get daughter from school, whilst there, a friend noticed that the bonnet was open and tried to shut it for me, it wouldn't shut as there was a spanner left on the top so the catch couldn't 'catch'!
At first, Piglet seemed to have a new lease of life, but gradually started to loose a bit of power, and was running sluggishly, then started 'chugging' a bit at low speeds. (Almost like when a manual car is about to stall.)
Mid October, I was on my way to the motorway, stopped for petrol & a very helpful man at the petrol station noticed water dripping from underneath the car (under front.)
He put some more water in for me and suggested I take it back to the garage.

I did this, and they told me that it was the thermostat housing that had leaked, and charged me 40 pounds to fit a new one.
Then, at the beginning of this month, it refused to start and when it finally got going, took me 2 miles up the road before the STOP light started flashing and it made a horrible noise.
I rang the garage, he tried to tell me to put some water in it and get it to him, but I honestly didn't know where to put it, so he came out to where I'd broken down, put some water in and followed me back to his garage.
He then did nothing for 3 days, and I had to chaase him as he wasn't ringing me back, eventually, he rang and said to come and pick it up. He said that it had been the water not circulating, a pipe was cold that should have been hot and that he'd taken the thermostat out and put it back in again. He didn't charge me, but asked that I go back 3-4 days later so he could check the water levels. I took the car out for a few runs and found i was doing the same thing again, chugging along.
I took it back again, and when he asked if I had returned to have the water checked, I said that I had brought i back to be fixed as it was doing the same thing as last time before it 'died' and I couldn't risk that with my daughter in the car.
Besides, from what a friend had explained to me, if I carried on driving it and the head gasket was about to go, I could do some serious damage to my engine.
This was last Wednesday, he didn't ring me or his wife, who runs the 'office' as he had promised too. Even though I had asked him to as I deperatly needed my car for several psychiatrist appointments I had for my daughter Thurs & Fri.
He didn't reeturn two of my calls on Friday, and I eventually caught his wife yesterday. She said he'd just popped out & would ring me back, he didn't.
After ringing twice today, he eventually rang me back to say that they were 'having a think' as to what to do.
Basically he said that he thought that there was some water leaking into my cylinder and that would get on my spark plugs and that was probably what was causing the chugging at low speeds and misfiring.
He said that the cheapest option, would be to run some 'additive' round the system which might seal any leak. If not, it would be taking the whole head of the block (whatever that means) which would be expensive.
I'm totally confused and to be honest, even 50 pounds is a lot to me right now. I've tried to ask a few male friends for advice, but most said they don't know enough about it, but they reckoned that the gaage hadn't done the initial head gasket job properly.
I've looked on wikipedia about gaskets and cylinders and have only confused myself further. From what I can see, the head gasket is fixed to the cylinder and then 'capped' with something.
I feel like he has made a mistake somewhere when he did the original job, and then placated me by 'tweaking' things just to get me out of his garage and back on the road, when what he should have done, is taken it all apart again?

I really don't know, but what I do know is that I get the feeling that he is telling me anything because I'm a dozy woman! I really object to that, but feel like I'm in no position to argue without knowing what I'm talking about! I used to have a fab garage I went to, I trusted him completely, but sadly his garage burnt down earlier this year. i just don't trust this bloke, but at the same time, I need my car fixed, and safely back on the road without spending any more money on it that I shouldn't have to it this was all his fault.

Anyone that has read this far (sorry it's such a long story!), thank you! And if anyone could offer any advice I'd be very grateful.
Many thanks
Lucy

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