Hi, my first post on this forum is one asking for desperate advice!

I have a skoda superb 1.8t with 63000 miles on the clock, 52 plate. I bought it for £2300.

I've had it just under a year, it has been serviced regularly, and just passed an mot with only a few advisories. Also just had a new coil pack due to failure and new spark plugs fitted.

One of the advisories is an oil leak which I have had for a good few months now. I've taken it to 2 local garages who both said they could not find where the leak was coming from! A third garage last week told me the leak was coming from the head gasket and would cost approx £800. He never gave me any more information because I said I would go away and think about it.

Is it a problem worth fixing, ie, should I bite the bullet and get it done or is it a signal that the car needs to be sold? It seems such a shame to sell a car that is so nice, and looks and drives immaculate just because it needs an £800 job, which is a lot of money to spend on a 2k car!

Can anybody give me any advice on what they would do in this situation, bear in mind I'm not very technical and not really a DIY kind of guy lol. I've looked around and the cars you can buy for 2k are nowhere near as good as what I have, at least it seems that way!

Cheers, steve.

Hello & welcome Steve 

 

First question really has to be if head gasket failure is a confirmed diagnosis, or an informed opinion?

 

Only you can tell if it's worth spending the money on.  It's a judgement call more than anything else.

 

Not sure if £800 is on the numbers for a HG change.  I had a 1.8 Golf's done a couple of years ago for a tad under £500, including a head skim.  Granted that wasn't a 20VT though and was a transverse engine.

 

FWIW I spent £1100 on a Saab gearbox the year before last.  The Saab was probably only worth two grand, but I didn't hesitate as I liked the car so much.

 

Gaz

Hello & welcome Steve 

 

First question really has to be if head gasket failure is a confirmed diagnosis, or an informed opinion?

 

Only you can tell if it's worth spending the money on.  It's a judgement call more than anything else.

 

Not sure if £800 is on the numbers for a HG change.  I had a 1.8 Golf's done a couple of years ago for a tad under £500, including a head skim.  Granted that wasn't a 20VT though and was a transverse engine.

 

FWIW I spent £1100 on a Saab gearbox the year before last.  The Saab was probably only worth two grand, but I didn't hesitate as I liked the car so much.

 

Gaz

Hi Gaz thanks for the reply.

I asked the mechanic to check out the oil leak while he was fitting the new coil pack and the response was exactly what I put. He said it's coming from the HG, it's a big job and would cost £800, which is when I said not at the moment lol.

I do really like the car so maybe I will get some quotes from other garages...

If the rest of the car is sound and seems trouble free, £800 maybe worth spending on it if it will fix your problem, if you can get the £800 without selling any organs, and get you back to a reliable working vehicle; you always need to think of what else would you get for your £800 plus whatever you could sell the car for.  More a question of really whether that is the fault or not, whether £800 is a fair amount for that fault (I don't know, sorry), and whether the particular garage are going to do a good job with the £800 or leave you with more problems.  

 

I myself spent £1500 on the gearbox on my Superb, and it was a lot of money but seems to be well spend so far.  I've done over 20,000 miles since then and hoping for a few more

 

Maybe worth seeking a (4th?) opinion from someone with recognised expertise with these cars / engines, and getting a check over on the rest of the car to see if it has other expenses waiting before deciding to do the work or move it on?

 

After the gearbox work on my vehicle I had a severe knocking on acceleration, which gearbox people were adamant wasn't them; took it to one so-called local specialist to be told it was probably a knackered gearbox.  Another specialist successfully figured out it was the exhaust knocking.  So always worth getting another opinion.

Just a quick update. I'm so glad I have taken the car to another garage for a second opinion.

I paid a different firm £30 to investigate, they have said it's definitely NOT a head gasket problem! Although they didn't have time to fully diagnose it, they have already said it will more than likely cost a lot less than the £800 quoted. I'm taking it back on Tuesday for them to finish the investigation and price up a repair.

Valuable advice - ALWAYS get a second opinion otherwise you could get your fingers burned like I nearly did!

...... they have said it's definitely NOT a head gasket problem! 

 

 

G

Thing is most used cars will have some sort of issues that the previous owners could not be bothered to fix or did not want to spend money on.

Ultimately, buying used is risky.  Therefore, if you know that your car is fundamentally good, then get it fixed and enjoy it for a few more years!

I've spent 1300 quid on a new injection pump on mine, though the car is probably worth only double that, because I have had it a few years and know that the rest is good, and if I bought another car tomorrow I might have to spend even more.

Remember the days when cars were simple and not much ever went wrong that cost more than a couple of hundred quid.  These days cars are complex (especially diesels) and everything costs an organ or two it seems 

So the garage today said the problem was the rocker cover gasket needs replacing. Also the timing belt could do with changing so altogether they have quoted me £295. This is obviously better than £800 so they will go ahead on Friday and get the work done. Can't wait for it to finally be sorted!

So matey in garage no.3 can't tell the difference between a blown head gasket and a leaking rocker box 

 

Timing belt changes are always a good idea if not to schedule and someone says it needs doing.  T'is a fools errand to ignore such advice (in my opinion).

 

Worth checking, but I think the 1.8T doesn't need the water pump done at the same time as the timing belt.  Someone more knowledgable on here than me will know the answer to this.

 

Gaz