..Although the temperature sensor had been reading fine all day on the motorway and although I'd been driving it at a steady 75mph when I stopped at the Service Station just before my Uni, I was alarmed to hear the sound of pressure escaping from the car.
..Upon doing a quick emergency exit
and opening the engine bay I was pretty upset to see that the cap to the coolant fluid reserve had come loose and gunky coolant was spraying everywhere....One RAC van later and I was able to drive the car the last 2min to my allotted parking space.
..Sadly, I am now looking at a new Head Gasket and all the Strimming and so on that goes with it.
Although the car is drivable I think I would be causing more damage every meter I took it...Now my question is should I:
1) Replace the Head Gasket at a local very good garage who I trust won't over-charge me and will also spend the time cleaning
/ sorting the engine. I have however been advised by both the RAC man and someone else who had this done that the engine will never be the same again and that I might want to consider a new one totally.I don't know why the temp sensor didn't catch the engine killing itself, the car didn't feel different to drive, I didn't notice any power loss etc.
It was the suddent onset of noise that alerted me to the problem. I am given hope that she still starts first time and I hope this means that just the Head Gasket needs changing.
However, there is OIL in the coolant which makes me think LEAK (which could be in quite a few places...)2) Replace the whole Engine Unit.
Looking at Rogue System's Rev 1 Transplant Bundle at £1250 gives me stomach pains, looking at their £1000 fitting charge (although obviously reasonable considering the time spent with it) gives me more pains. To spend £2250 on my car is not that much shy of what I've paid for it in the first place, and although I didn't expect it to run forever I expected more than two months (and the pre-check advised me the same!)3) Scrap the car.
I don't want to do this, but I don't really have the cash for the engine transplant, nor do I want the car to fail in the future on a regular basis.... I am sure the parts are worth something, but I doubt I'll be seeing my original investment... As I've already got receipts for £1000 of work on it...Can someone with a little sympathy and time message me on MSN and talk me though the options.
... I need to get a quote from my garage, but I'd be tempted to go for option 1 as I suspect that whatever option I chose I'll not end up with the car I had...---On another note, it was nice to see everyone at Cov and I've got some lovely pics of everyone's cars, I'll upload ASAP.
