[Closed] Cylinder head blown, honest advice please!

Can you get pictures?

Pitting of the block sounds extreme but if its had no anti freeze....

2nd hand lump would be my option. Look at a motor from somewhere like hills salvage.

What credit has she got on the car and when can she hand it back? Previously I have given cars back and it’s cost less than hanging on to them.

What credit has she got on the car and when can she hand it back? Previously I have given cars back and it’s cost less than hanging on to them.

She owes £4k to voluntarily terminate, then she has no car and unable to finance another.

Pitting of the block sounds extreme but if its had no anti freeze….

That's what they're saying, lack of AF has allowed rust to get into the water chambers, or something like that.

Grab pics but I'm saying 2ndhand motor and that's something I very rarely suggest.

They're not a bad lump to replace. But budget a clutch....

I've done heads and chains ont earlier ones.

You could also just head gasket it and px it....🤐. Bit of a **** trick mind.

Bangernomics for a replacement, anything running and costing less than a grand and you would be in a better place if it lasts more than a year.

Try and find an engine specialist, they may be prepared to do the work

Or see if Molgrips is after a runabout

I’ve seen an engine corroded from inside out by topping up a persistent coolant leak with fresh water.

And when I say seen… I mean did. Lesson learned.

So yeah, sounds an entirely believable diagnosis.

how on earth do you owe that sort of cash on a GM skip like that? burn it and buy and old honda for 1K??

“ She’s wrecked her credit rating due to not taking care of her finances and now bank of dad is on the hook to fix it.”

So she has been reckless with her money, and wrecked a perfectly decent car through wilful neglect and you’re going to sort it?
Be prepared to do this again and again and again as until she feels the consequences of her actions sharply she’ll never learn.

Arrange for it to be "stolen".

Or see if Molgrips is after a runabout

Lolz

topping it up with bottles of Buxton.

TBF, that's not a bad drop to fill yer car with. Perrier next, if that's still a thing. Or, as a Harrogate resident, how about some Harrogate Spring?

The pitting is due to combustion gases passing through the failed gasket and eating away at the block deck. Lack of antifreeze takes ages to have any detrimental corrosion effect.

If it was mine I'd fill the pitting with JB Weld, shave it flush when cured, bolt it back together - drive it for a few months then punt it on.

2nd hand lump would be my option.

This

Sell it as spares or repair, put the proceeds towards the payments, don't get anything to replace it.

Fixing it or replacing it just adds to the ongoing misconception that someone else will pick up the tab for her lack of responsibility

+1 on sell as spares/ repair. There seems a real market for this.

She will get a loan, just perhaps a small one and a higher rate of interest.

It sounds like some hard lessons being learned - never easy as a parent to deal with it.

My brother is mid-40’s and still hasn’t learned any fiscal responsibility. I’ve been in Cyprus with my mother for a week and so far she’s paid his rent because he claimed his employer was late paying him and yesterday she sent him money to cover his MOT even though he said he’s now been paid. I expect stuff like this happens most months.

driving around the country when you’re bored is expensive.

Wait, she does 29,000 miles/yr out of boredom? Have you told her that she's killing the planet with that? Or have I misread? Sell the car, buy her a bike.

While it's tempting to go full Judge Judy on this, I'll limit my "honest advice" to not facilitating that kind of negligent behaviour any further.

She must be in work to be driving such a pricey motor though?

driving around the country when you’re bored is expensive.

and utter lunacy!! Sorry.

Sell it as spares or repair, put the proceeds towards the payments,

Generally not possible as the car secures the loan, you need to settle the finance before the car is sold. Anyway, I'd hazard a guess a 5 year old Corsa with a knackered engine is probably worth a grand at most, which doesn't make much of a dent in the £7.5k loan balance.

Second hand engine will be less than the settlement cost, and then she still has a car at the end of the process.

29,000 a year and serious cooling issue throughout, so probably safe to assume the car hasn't been serviced twice (nearly three times) in that period? Also guess her insurer doesn't know about the mega-mileage? Sadly it just kinda sounds like she isn't ready for car ownership yet

* Bear in mind this comes from someone who got themselves in the financial mire when young, partly with cars but also other things, and had to dig myself out as there was no Bank Of Mum and Dad to raid *

Your daughter is 21 so needs to learn that running a car as much as she does comes with consequences, mechanically and financially. We don't know what type of person your daughter is, whether she is normally clued up but blind when it comes to cars for example, so this is more general advice from someone who has been there and dug themselves out.

I would recommend this:

Sell it as spares or repair, put the proceeds towards the payments, don’t get anything to replace it.

Fixing it or replacing it just adds to the ongoing misconception that someone else will pick up the tab for her lack of responsibility

Let her sort the problem out from that point on. That can be buying a bangernomics car or just not replacing it, does she really NEED a car? She will need to work out the financial side of car ownership herself and it's impact on other parts of her life otherwise you'll end up with this:

My brother is mid-40’s and still hasn’t learned any fiscal responsibility. I’ve been in Cyprus with my mother for a week and so far she’s paid his rent because he claimed his employer was late paying him and yesterday she sent him money to cover his MOT even though he said he’s now been paid. I expect stuff like this happens most months.

I know it's very tempting to jump in and be the 'Dad to the Rescue!' for her but at 21 she should be fully able to make decisions on her own, seek advice when she needs it and know the consequences of things. Running a car for 30k a year will wear it out and things will break, she needs to look at the whole scenario and make some changes.

I would strongly suggest that you use this opportunity to let her find out a solid life lesson while the figures and consequences are relatively low. She is only 21 so financially she had plenty of time to recover, get into new good habits and start afresh.

It’s a difficult one - from a financial perspective I think I’d pick up a secondhand engine of exactly the same spec / year and have that fitted. Just try to find what looks to be the most respectable source for that engine - ideally with proof of the mileage it’s done etc. Ideally from a car that’s been rear ended in a crash and uneconomical to repair.

On the moral thing I think a lot of us have done slightly stupid things with money when younger and needed to be dug out of a hole by parents - I certainly did when I’m my early 20’s and also with cars.

I don’t know your daughter at all (and have never done mileage like that - I drove about a lot but it was mostly local with mates etc) but it sounds like it needs to be a proper sit down job, talk through the consequences of neglecting finance agreements on things she might want to do in later life and come up with a financial budget to work to.

Personally for me since mid 20’s I’ve run 2 bank accounts - 1 to pay bills and 1 to have spending money in per month. Ideally there would be some kind of 3rd savings account but she’s probably not in the place for that yet. She just needs to make sure she leaves enough in the bills account to cover the car finance / insurance / mobile phone bill etc - put the rest in the spending account and that’s what she’s got to stick to.

Some banks do a 12 month regular saver product - rates aren’t good right now but if she put say £30 a month into it via direct debit straight out of her account on pay day then at the end of 12 months she has a little lump sum to play with (say for Christmas or a car service / tax or something).

It's a shit situation, but it's your daughter, you can't just walk away.

In regards to the car:

I assume the horrific finance cost is because she had to take a sub-prime finance deal, but nothing can change that now.

There's little point trying to argue with the garage about whether it needs a skim or not, it's needs to be a perfect surface to work and there's no point just banging another gasket in, unless your going to punt it on to some poor sap who'll discover it's knackered a few weeks later.

You can't sell it 'spares or repairs' or in any other way without settling the finance, unless your daughter wants to face court.

As others have said, the best bet is to find a decent salvage yard and buy a used engine, I'd buy the whole thing rather than just a block, the extra cost will be saved in labour and consumables. How much you think you need to ensure she looks after it, after that, only you can say.

In regards to the bigger picture with your Daughter:

She's 21, her credit rating is ruined, she's £2.5k in arrears on the car, have I read that right? I assume the rest of her finances are a tale of woe and destruction as well?

If the Car is financed via PCP, she's going to get hammered returning it, the excess mileage alone will be thousands. Now, you can sometimes/usually avoid that by VTing, but not always, if She told them she was going to do 8k miles a year, and returns it looking a mess with a salvage engine having done 28k miles a year, they're going to dig their heels in.

The 'Nuclear' option is Bankruptcy. I certainly wouldn't do it to get out of a bad car finance deal, but if her finances are really as bad as they read, then it might be the lesson she needs. The court will take all her 'assets' but not her day to day stuff like clothes and furniture etc. Her debts will be wiped clean, but she'll lose a significant portion of her disposable income for a few years, she'll have to live within her means because she can't borrow any more money.

After 3 years (I think) she'll be able to keep all her income again, then after 6 years (as long as it'll take to clear the bad data she has now) it's be like it never happened. She'll be 27, hopefully some way into a career and the age when people start to think about buying a home etc.

I've never been bankrupt, although sometimes I think it might have been the better option. In 2009 I was made redundant and a few days later badly injured, I didn't work for nearly a year, and like your daughter I had a looong history of not paying my bills when I should do. I entered into an IVA. Because of that I didn't have a lot of spare cash and I couldn't borrow a penny, I couldn't even get a contract for a mobile. My bank account was the most basic possible, but because of that, however badly I handled it, they couldn't charge me, which was a life saver whilst I got myself in order.

I must say, renting a cheap place, living within my means and not owing a penny to anyone (well, not really, but for all intents and purposes) was a pretty carefree existence. I'm far better off now, much higher income, Experian score of 999, nice house with a nice prime rate mortgage, but also his and hers PCPs sat on the drive, a couple of 0% credit cards because it seems like 'free money', all the usual trappings of a 'middle class' family, I wouldn't give up the house, but I often regret the other stuff and miss the carefree days of living more modestly.

Worth thinking about.

Sounds like the car has had coolant issues from day 1 leading to multiple HGF, add the neglect the engine sounds like it is now scrap. I'd still look as spare/repair you should still be able to get book price minus £1-2K, there are many people who would think nothing of dropping another engine in and punting it on. Would this cover the debt? It's not like it's an insurance cat recorded failure.

topping it up with bottles of Buxton

I like the idea of going for branded water over tap. Maybe consider a sparking water in future?

after another cooling issue she decided NOT to take it back to the garage and been running around in it, topping it up with bottles of Buxton.

Neither the supplying garage, the garage who did the first repair or finance company are interested in helping in the slightest

I'd be embarasssed to even have asked!

Sounds like a life lesson has been learned!

I would strongly suggest that you use this opportunity to let her find out a solid life lesson while the figures and consequences are relatively low. She is only 21 so financially she had plenty of time to recover, get into new good habits and start afresh.

100% this. Its not the end of the world, many, many (most!?) young teenagers/adults are not perfect, lord knows I wasnt!

If you could source a known good engine, that would be the best option. Don't expect the fitting garage to offer any warranty on it though.

I'd probably go with a new head gasket (and head bolts) and the magic snake oil:

It has saved a few cars for my customers that were otherwise scrap*.

*This is not the best engineering solution, but when you're drinking in the last chance saloon  . . .

Just looking at a 'bigger' picture.

If the car has been that badly maintained, then what are the rest of the running components like?
- Brakes, discs,

- Tyres,

- Steering componnts,

- CV joint covers,

- Interior

etc, etc.

Will it pass its next MOT without a shedload of money being spent?

I just want to know where your daughter goes to clock up 29k miles in 12 months! That is more than most BDM's I have worked with ever put on their cars and they were servicing clients nationally day in day out.

I'm going to jump on the 'Geordiemick should take a some of blame in this' side.

Youngsters just don't understand cars like us old folk and need to be guided - and checking oil and water regularly should be drummed into them from day 1 of car ownership.

And if they aren't responsible enough then you as a parent need to take on that role until they get it, especially if you will be picking up the tab if it goes tits up like this.

It is tough as we all want to help our kids. I am struggling to have much sympathy though as by my, perhaps dodgy, maths if she has done 29k in a year this is about £4k in petrol yet she is £2.5k behind in her payments? So she had money for petrol but not her loan? As mentioned above I would be concerned about her other finances and therefore sorting the car may just be the tip of the iceberg.

I dunno about what to do with the car....maybe see if there is a deal to be done at Lings?

fix it, pay the money.

tell her to pay you back over a period of time?

😂😂😂

No dont sign up for more credit funded cars at lings or main dealer pcp.

She had nice shiny things, she broke the nice shiney thing that was her highest asset value and needs to learn a life lesson. That lesson is called a bus.

Im all for bangernomics but for a single young girl or girls out, probably in the small hours, stranded by the side of the road there are just too many wrong uns about to roll those dice, and i dont even have kids

My 2p worth. Sell on ebay. Loan her a few thousand, but get a dd set up so 1 day after payday 25% of her take home your way. Be another good life lesson in living within your means and effectively saving, altnough its debt repayment

With the current supply issue and covid tax you probably need £2k min for something abit more robust and reliable

And avoid anything else with the vauxhall badge

What's changed from a week or so ago when it would cost £850 for a new head gasket?

In her position I'd just get that done and run the thing (a bit less, maybe). It's not like this is some classic high value exotica that you're trying to make last forever or restore to showroom standard. Autotrader suggests a similar car is worth £4,500-£6,000 retail without looking hard at what's on offer, so not bangernomics, nor would you reasonably get finance on bangernomics cars.

That leaves the issues of budgeting/debt and the overall lack of maintenance. If you are mechanically minded, explain the basics of tyres, water, oil, warning lights and rattles. I must admit if there isn't a puddle on the drive and not smoking out the back, I almost never look at the dispstick on mine, and they are both older than her Corsa. If she's supposedly becoming financially independent, there might need to be a period where it sits on a drive until she saves up enough to fix it.

What’s changed from a week or so ago when it would cost £850 for a new head gasket?

Engine got dismantled and is a goner by the sounds of it

I missed that, I thought it was just(!?) head off so far.

To VT it would cost £4k, to fix it and then pay off her arrears is £2500, so it’s really a case of fixing it IS the best option all round.

I think you're looking at it from the point of view of how much it would cost to be shot of it, rather than considering if fixing it really is the best option.

She had to pay her arrears of £2.5k whatever.

I'd suggest that if the repair cost + the settlement figure - the realistic price she'd get for selling was more than £4k then you'd be better off stopping throwing good money after it.

How's about just bunging a used engine in?

Probably a better bet than all the your daughter is crap with money advice everyone else is offering, loads of use that!

That's an interesting site. Anyone else bunged their registration number in there just out of interest? £1350 for a recon engine for my van. I'm pleased it's running nicely. 🤣

There's no easy answers in this, if your daughter still owes £7,800 on a five year old Corsa then something is very, very amiss - either she's been unable to meet repayments or she paid way over the odds for it in the first place. If she's put another 29k miles on it without taking it back to the garage (which might've been a warranty fix?) then she's in for a very difficult lesson in the importance of getting your car serviced.

FWIW, I feel the OP's pain. An ex of mine was historically rubbish with money and dropped into conversation that her five year old Yaris with 40k on the clock had never received a service, ever. She'd got scared at the prospect of an expensive service and decided that not bothering with it was the leasy scary option for her. I managed to persuade her to get the car looked at and explained that the gap in the service history was likely to cost hear dearly when it came to trade the car in. The resulting service wasn't cheap, but there was peace of mind at least.

“ It’s a shit situation, but it’s your daughter, you can’t just walk away.”

Yes you can. If you don’t it’s gonna cost the same again and again and again.
If I needed money through no fault of my own despite being ok with finances I know my parents would help me. If I needed money cos I’d done what the OPs daughter had done my parents would tell me to do one if I’d dared to ask for the cash, and I’d probably agree with them. 😂
You could offer advice on how to get themselves out of the hole they are in, but there is no way I’d be buying them a spade…..

29k miles, in the middle of a pandemic?

That aside, I’d bung a reconditioned engine in it, then PX it against something else and have her pay the finance and the engine with a warning that this will never happen again. You’re on your own Kiddo!

To skim the engine block means stripping the engine of the pistons etc and basically re-building the engine again.

I had a full rebuild of my 1993 Corsa 1.5 TD when I went through a ford in the Lakes and sucked in water. I did have the bent con rod and knackered piston as a momento for a few years. A back street garage stripped and rebuilt it for about £900 IIRC. Did another 100k after that before it was getting silly keeping it going...

FWIW, I feel the OP’s pain. An ex of mine was historically rubbish with money and dropped into conversation that her five year old Yaris with 40k on the clock had never received a service, ever.

Not unusual, the wife works for Kia UK and they regularly have customers bring in a car with a knackered engine after several years without ever servicing the car. They expect Kia to give them a new one under warranty as "the cars come with a 7 year warranty".

Threads like this really put me off buying a used car!

As my grandad would've said
"She wants her bloody arse punchin'"

Suggest she goes for a road trip to Watford (shouldn't take much persuading if she's driven 29k miles due to boredom 😀 ) and the car will conveniently [url= https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/anti-car-schadenfreude/ ]get written off[/url]...

I had a full rebuild of my 1993 Corsa 1.5 TD when I went through a ford in the Lakes and sucked in water. I did have the bent con rod and knackered piston as a momento for a few years. A back street garage stripped and rebuilt it for about £900 IIRC.

That was nearly 30 years ago! £1925 today according to the Bank of England inflation calculator, average of 2.8% per year.

I'd have k sealed it before taking the head off. As a punt

Now as I've said I'd put a lump in it. You could try some jb weld and flating it off but I doubt itll go for long.

I'm not going down the lecture path. You know. I'd like to think she'll now know.

That was nearly 30 years ago! £1925 today according to the Bank of England inflation calculator, average of 2.8% per year.

I doubt he rattled through a ford at speed in 93 in his shiny new 93 TD Corsa ....surprised a 1.5td ate water and needed work though..... Isuzu should have compressed the shit out that water hahhah

Was it the 1500 that had the headgaskets with the notches for thickness..

Any heavy skim rendered it scrap or needing the pistons skimmed

No idea but they could take a fair bit of extra boost without lunching the HG

That was nearly 30 years ago!

You're right, doesn't seem that long ago! Although I think I had it for nearly 10 years, put something like 250k miles on it in the end.

.surprised a 1.5td ate water and needed work though…

It ate a lot IIRC, drove through the ford one way when it was a few inches deep, then coming back I just assumed it was the same depth. Hit 2' of water at about 40mph which probably forced a fair amount into the air intake. Then drove onto Ambleside with what looked like a smoke generator strapped to the car, 1/4 of the fuel was being ignited in the exhaust and generating plumes of dense fog behind the car. Car was pronounced 'dead' by a garage in Ambleside. Had the AA tow it back to a local garage near work, in Old Harlow, who repaired it, inc drying the inside out (my passenger opened the door in 2' of water, which promptly turned the car into a swimming pool).

Www.breakeryard.com
You put in an online request form and the car breakerists get back tl you witj a price

Not used it for a few years but used to be a good option

Any update

Yeah c'mon @geordiemick00 what did you decide in the end? Don't keep us hanging.