Negligence

fathersymes

My mothers car started overheating last October and the local garage said it needed a new head gasket. This cost about 1,500. The car has been losing water ever since and the garage says it is nothing to be concerned about, just top it up.

I just dropped the car into the Main Dealer for them to examine it and they have said that the head gasket needs replacing. What they won't do is produce a report stating that the local garage failed to properly do the work last October.

Do I have a legal case against the local garage?

Kinetic^

How do the new garage know that you're not fibbing?

The fact that you've left it for so long would have people doubting your story.

Seth Brundle

A problem (as far as it seems) is that an issue was fixed four or five months ago.
The fact that the fault has happened again is (legally thinking) not 100% attributable to last Octobers fault.
Where is the water leaking? The gasket itself?

Henry Ford III

After getting a head gasket (€1500 was a lot to pay btw) replaced the car should not have been loosing coolant.

She should have stopped driving it the moment it started overheating and sent it to the garage.

By driving it in that shape she damaged the gasket and possibly warped the head.

crosstownk

fathersymes wrote:

The car has been losing water ever since and the garage says it is nothing to be concerned about, just top it up.

At this point there was obviously a problem - it is not normal for a car to loose coolant. The car should have been taken back straight away and repaired correctly. It is this garage that should be repairing the car FOC, but as it has been a few months, things could get quite messy. Due the time factor it is impossible for the Main Dealer to say for sure whether or not the fault is due to previous poor workmanship.

BrianD3

The car should not use any appreciable quantity of water, it certainly is not "normal" to have to top a car up regularly. The first garage sound like cowboys and 1500 quid is too much for a head gasket unless it's a pretty exotic car. I'd say what has happened here is:
-the head gasket wasn't gone at all and the overheating/leaks were due to something else, the problem then continued as it wasn't fixed
-the head gasket was gone but the job was not done right, maybe the head was warped and not skimmed properly
-the job was done right and the new gasket has failed already (unlikely)

I agree with crosstownk, it's a messy situation and hard to prove anything at this stage.

Guy:Incognito

Even if she had driven outof garage 1 and straight to the main dealer with the problem, I cant see the main dealer giving you anything that blames the last garage. I seriously doubt they'd leave themselves so open by doing that.

As others have said, she should have went straight back, An owners manual will even tell you that a car shouldnt leak coolant.

jimmycrackcorm

1500 for a new head gasket is shocking. I had one done on an astra a couple of months ago for 230.

crosstownk

Stekelly wrote:

Even if she had driven outof garage 1 and straight to the main dealer with the problem, I cant see the main dealer giving you anything that blames the last garage. I seriously doubt they'd leave themselves so open by doing that.

True in some instances, but if the car was taken to the main dealer immediately then something may have been apparent as being poor workmanship. Then it's up to the dealer to call a spade a spade. If the dealer does not want to get involved then maybe he should suggest an independent engineer who, on behalf the agrieved customer, could assess the situation - more cost but the best practice. But none of that is relevant to the OP as I think most are agreed that too much time has passed.