[Off Topic] Head Gasket

Holy ****, Manny's fully legal

 

Sound advice here Jersey; if you've got the time, tools, space and will to have a bit of fun exploring. If you do, remember to lay out all of the bits in a logical fashion which will help with the jigsaw later! Think of it as a full-scale Airfix kit (but don't use their glue).

 

What car have you got?

 

pay attention Sam !!! Fiat Punto.

 

My daughter had a similar problem with her Punto, I replaced the head gasket, but it was a bastard job, took hours and had to take loads of bit's off at the back of the engine. It took me two six hour sessions to sort it and I had to make up some special tools, if you are not a competent mechanical type don't bother, you will just dig a bigger hole.

 

Haynes manuals FTW, they've saved me 1'000s

 

Same here. The hard bit is getting the confidence to work on your own car and trust that you can do it correctly!

 

Mercedes A class - that is where I will start when I can afford one

 

Hmm, I may attempt to do it, but the only thing I've ever replaced on a car is a tyre (and even my dad helped me with that one!). The main problem is that it'll cost 40 quid to get it towed to the tip, plus the cost of the tools, if I try to fix it (and inevitably balls it up!), whereas I could just drive it there now.

 

I think Ernie's post and advice above is invaluable.
I know he is a reputable engineer and if he struggled for that length of time, with a great many years as a competent engineer and presumably all the right know as to how to overcome the difficulties (lack of specialist FIAT tooling for instance), it sounds like a huge undertaking. Coupled with your current ability to get it to the breaker's yard under your own steam (excuse the joke), I reckon that is probably the best answer.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
©

 

Just got my licence card today in the post, fully legit now!

 

Tis the season for new drivers hey

 

Hope you get some luck with the car

 

Nice, welcome to the queue of people waiting to be rich enough to afford insurance.

 

Cheers, I'm scouring the used car sites in Jersey every day, but the ones I can afford all look extremely dodgy! There was an Escort for 500 quid, but the only comment on it was 'very clean inside and out'

 

When you get to 23 it gets to go below £500 (although my cars grp 13 so it probably would have happened earlier otherwise)

 

So they'd washed it

 

ATM I'm driving my mum's VW Polo, but it's a 1.6 so the insurance is costing twice that of the Punto!

 

Or this one...