Hello - I have problems with a Rover 25 1.6 GS Auto,Y reg, a regularly serviced and very low mileage car(33K). Broke down before Christmas - drive warning light came on, referred to handbook which said it was ok to drive at low speeds - bad knocking noise seemingly from front of the car, and it was obviously labouring badly. About 2 miles from home it conked out(I had covered about 5miles by then), and there was a slight burning smell - managed to restart, with difficulty, and made it home. Wouldn't start 2 days later, so had vehicle collected by a local reputable garage, who got back to me after a day or so and said it was the head gasket. A few days later they said the head had been machined, pressure tested and all re-assembled, but there was a slight running fault which they were investigating. The next contact I had with them was on New Year's Eve - they left a phone message with a friend asking me to get in touch, as they had found a hairline crack in the cylinder head. About 20 minutes before this phone call, I had seen the car out on the road, being driven with seemingly no problems at all, and being parked up outside a fast food joint, the driver then eating his food in the car. I called in at the garage later that afternoon, and was told that a secondhand head would be approx £200 above the work already done - I gave the go-ahead for this. On Tuesday 5th January the garage contacted me - I went in to see them, and I was sat down and told that there was a fundamental running problem with the car which they were unable to trace, and that they were not able to spend any more time or expense on the fault. They said that they couldn't charge me for the work done as the vehicle was not running correctly. With all the snow I did not attempt to collect the vehicle til Tuesday of this week. It was a devil to start, and when it did start was running extremely roughly, with lots of very harsh vibration, and sounded awful - sounding more like a very rough diesel than a petrol engine. It has to be revved to keep it going, and when it stalls is very hard to start. When you put it in drive it stalls. It is not driveable.
Possible warning signs running up to the breakdown were the fan keeping running for a minute or more after the engine was switched off, and some issues with the engine management warning light coming on occasionally(garage was asked to look at this when it was serviced in June, but could find no apparent faults - light would flash occasionally, sometimes only for a second or two, sometimes for a few minutes. Do I have any comeback against the garage? I have very limited mechanical knowledge, but just smell something fishy. I mentioned to the garage that I had seen the car being driven/parked up, and they told me that it was being road tested - surely you only road test a vehicle when it is ready to go back to the customer. It seems to me that in the second phase of work something has gone drastically wrong.
Should I get a second opinion from another garage?
Should I ask the garage to come clean with me?
Should I just scrap the car and put it down to experience?
Any opinions or advice gratefully received.
Richard, Birmingham(tricky120 'at' talktalk.net)
Post reformatted and correct yr entered into header
Edited by Webmaster on 16/01/2010 at 13:20
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A short reaction is that
1. You had a car which wasn't running properly
2. It went in for 'repair' which didn't work and for which you weren't charged
3. You still have a car whis isn't running properly.
Try another garage. Is the one you are dealing a reliable independent or a reliable Rover agent? Balance the repair cost against the current value of the car and what it might be worth after repair.
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Thanks Armitage - garage is a long established and well regarded independent - 2nd hand sales/service/repair/MoTs
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By the sound of it you well and truely cooked the engine by driving it in the state it was in. You best bet is probably to find another complete engine and bin the old one seeing as even a reputable garage can't get the old one up and running again.
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Possibly, but I was complying with the management system, which was telling me that it was ok to drive at slow speeds. There was nothing abnormal with the temperature gauge or the engine mangement light, only the drive warning light. An afterthought is that the heating was not working
Ta
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Richard,
As I gather you live in B'ham, then I suggest you take it to All Electric garage - I think they are in Electic Avenue. They used to be a Rover franchised repairer.
They can at least give it the once over and tell you if its worth repairing.
Robin the Technician
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Thanks Robin - have had a positive response from Viking in Kings Norton, Birmingham who have all the necessary diagnostic equipment, and who also have regular dealings with the garage I used. Hopefully by the end of next week I will know whether it is repairable or not(cost effectively, of course)
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The heating not working is an indication that the water level was low, regardless of what the gauge said.
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What do you mean by 'drive warning light'?
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Light near the handbrake light, oil pressure light, etc was illuminated - checked handbook and it was the 'drive warning light' - said it was ok to drive, but only at low speed
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Is the drive warning light linked to the automatic gearbox?
The engine should be repairable fairly cheaply as long as it hasnt been well and truly cooked! Despite what people say about the K series, it is fairly hardy and difficult to break (headgasket aside)
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Keep us informed on their findings - feedback is always useful.
Robin the Technician
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Reconditioned engine now fitted - seems ok - thanks for replies - advice appreciated
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