Bought a car with Full Service History, but the Head Gasket job wasn't mentioned.

CheezePleeze

I bought a car (DS5) last May with a full service history.

Warranty was for 6 months, and the garage covered a couple of faults during warranty, no quibbles. However: the car was showing signs that the head gasket was going, so I brought it to a local Citroen specialist and he started on the job.

Once the head came off, it was obvious that the job had been done before. The previous mechanic used the old bolts. But because of the skimming of the cylinderhead, the old bolts were too long and bottomed out. This led to the gasket going again.

The garage I bought it from claim they did not do the head gasket job. I accept that. But they must have known the job needed doing.

They had serviced the car from new. Every service, for the same owner. There's no way that owner would not have gone to the garage to get a price for the replacement head gasket. Let's face it - it was the garage that most likely told the owner the job needed doing.

So, they are denying they did the job. But if they knew about the job, surely they sold the car to me with full service history, in bad faith...

I guess it's Small Claims Court time?

User1998

I don’t see how you have a case? You have no evidence of anything. You can’t prove if they ever done the head gasket before or if they knew it needed doing again when they sold you the car.

Did it need doing at the time of sale or any time during your warranty period?

You bought the car over a year ago and your warranty expired 7 months ago. Forget about the small claims court.

Just my opinion

Bigus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119229017#Comment_119229017

i totally agree , the head gasket job could have been done by anybody regardless of service history, ie. On a break down on a long trip.

User1998

And even if they were the ones who replaced the headgasket, just because it failed again over a year later, I wouldn’t imagine that makes them liable for anything.

cpoh1

Headbanger stuff. Things go wrong in cars long after you buy them and thats life. Get it fixed and move on.

ThreeGreens

I would read a "full service history" as being a record that the car was serviced at the required intervals.

I would not read it as being a record of every piece of work carried out on the car.

kirving

The head gasket went on my dad's car years ago driving around hills in West Clare, so he had to get it fixed locally by the first garage he could find.

Sounds like an amateur, or emergency jobs if they used the old bolts - a main deal worth not be doing that under any circumstances.

(I'm assuming main dealer, as you say they had serviced the car from new).