I bought a 2005 Vauxhall Astra 1.7CDTI from a dealer on 3 June 2010. About two weeks ago I was driving home and had a temporary loss of power at 60 mph, but this rectified itself after about one second. No warning lights were illuminated. I assumed that it was a sticking throttle. The same thing happened about 20 minutes later, again at about 60 mph, but this time I changed from fifth to fourth gear, and the engine stopped and all the warning lights came on. I coasted onto the hard shoulder and was recovered by the AA.

I have spoken to the garage and they claim that I drove the car in limp mode to the point where the car could be driven no further and that they are not responsible for the repairs. They claim that this is reflected in the computer print out. As I understand it "limp mode" means that the car has a loss of power and a max speed of about 30mph. The car was not put on a Tech 2 machine therefore it is not a Vauxhall specific machine. The mechanic states that he did a compression test and that there is no compression in cylinders one, two and four, and that cylinder three has 200psi. He also stated that there is no temperature gauge on the car and that there is a split in a coolant hose which caused the engine to overheat. This being the case, I had no way of knowing that the car was overheating until it conked out on me. Are the garage liable for the repair to the car?