My head gasket has gone on my astra sri, how much do you think it should cost me to get it repaired?

Question

I have a Astra SRI its a Treg, 2.0 16v. Its been using way too much water, the exhaust is smoking a hell of a lot the general running on the car is sluggish so I took it to a garage and they said that I had carbon monoxide in my water which means my head gasket as gone. So to have the head skimmed get a new headgasket and all else that you need to fix it will cost me £234 then £180 labour and £72 vat. These guys could be taking me for a ride I never trust them with me being a girl they could tell me anything. Now I really do know the headgasket has gone but can someone tell me is the price right in what there saying Please Please!

Answer 1

Actually, that's quite a good price. The head gasket is one of the more expensive things that can go in a car.

Answer 2

Hi there, first of all that price does actually seem reasonable, however i agree with the comments made about not knowing if the head needs skimming until the engine is in bits, a lot of times there is no need to skim the head even if it is aluminium alloy as most of them are, as long as the vehicle is dismantled when cold then warping can be avoided, you dont say that the engine was overheated so in that case i would ask them to dismantle engine and then using autodata measure the head its easy to do and only needs a set of feeler gauges and a straight edge, if they know what they are doing they will measure it and check against the manufacturers specifications, if its within tolerance it dont need skimming. What i would reccomend as your engine is known as an ecotec engine is that unless you have recently had a timing belt fitted i would reccomend that it was changed along with the tensioner and idler pulleys, this will cost about £100 for the genuine parts or about £60 for equally as good but none vauxhall parts, as they will have the engine dismantled it will only add about 30 mins work on to the job and so not make the bill larger

Hope that advice helps

Answer 3

Thanks about right i'm afraid. Ya see, they basically have to take the whole top of your engine off, and then send it to an engineer who then has a special lathe that will skim some of the metal off. They do this becuase at the moment it is warped, from drivin too fast and overheating the engine.

Once skimmed, the part u need is a gasket set, which is a cost of just about £20. And is a rubber seal thingy that the put on when they put ur engine back together. Basically they skim ur engine so there is a good contact when it all goes back together.

The only way to do this cheaper is if you know an experience mechanic- but the head of your engine still will need expensive engineering work im afraid

When you get it done, go easy on the car- or if you can, sell it and get somthing a little newer and reliable, like a Zetec engine fiesta (from around £750)

Good Luck

Answer 4

First off, I'm in the States. So, as stupid as it may sound, I have no idea how much money you're talking about here. If your Head is aluminum, they recomend having the head resurfaced (skimmed). As they tend to warp. To check to see if it is your head gasket, remove your oil cap and check for a milky foam. That's water. Also, you can remove your sparkplugs and then turn the engine over. Water will shoot out of the sparkplug holes. If that's what it is, you might want to try something a bit easier. Check out : steelseal.com
I have used Liquid Glass in the past and it worked great. I think this stuff is about the same. The Car Guy

Answer 5

To hazard a guess i would of said 400 before I read all the details , I do think this is a reasonable price , but make sure you get a full reciept for the work done and try and get a guarantee on the workmanship cause a head gasket can go again if the slightest thing has'nt been done correctly...good luck.

Answer 6

To be honest thats not a bad price for the job.Get the yellow pages out and have a look at other garages or ask around for recommendations of other garages and you might find a better price.There is a bit of specialised machining with skimming the head,usually on a miller so thats why its quite high!

Answer 7

There's no way they can tell it needs the head skimmed without taking it apart. The problem with taking the head off the engine is that you never know what else you're going to find once you're in there. Putting on a new head gasket involves about 2 hours work, but there's not a great deal of skill involved (provided you know how to use a torque wrench). It's probably a job for a mobile mechanic who will charge you around £100.

I've read some of the other comments and I don't know what the fuss is about. I've successfully replaced the head gasket on three of my cars. (Having bought them cheaply because it needed doing). The ignition on cars is considerably more complicated than in the 1980s, but the mechanical parts haven't changed much. You just strip it down, clean it up, put on a new gasket and reassemble - replacing any parts that look suspect.

Answer 8

I was gunna say about £400 - £500 when I first saw the question, so that doesn't seem too bad. It is worth checking a few other places though, because prices can varey by loads. Also see if you can get some recomendations or reviews from anywhere as to whether the garage(s) are good or not.

Answer 9

Yep....fraid so hun. Sounds about right to me. A head gasket is MAJOR surgery. If you're not convinced you could get a second opinion but that would be even more expense. If you're in a motoring organisation they might help.

Answer 10

Quite a reasonable price if they need to have the head skimmed (which they probably will).