Cost of repairing head gasket failure

[citroenxm]

no will its an sx... later phase two cars dropped the "nameing" spec and went to base sx and a top spec i cannot remember now...

i thought about the throttle outer cable stop or more so the wire clip that holds the outer cable in the correct position.. with the clip missing you wont get full throttle...

i drove a bx d auto on a h plate... it wasnt fast.. but not slow either.. it was. .. ummm adequte

[robert_e_smart]

Give the car an Italian tune up. Clear the soot.

[endorfin]

From my understanding an ITU is running the car at maximum revs to clear the soot, how long do you do this for? Also is is possible to damage the car doing something like this.

The car wouldn't start the next day, had to keep trying for ages before it would start up so I changed the glow plugs today. It had been 5 hours since it was last started and it fired up straight away. Will try it again in the morning but I think this was definitely the problem as the glows looked knackered. The air inlet manifold had a lot of soot on it, I considered cleaning it up when it was off but I was too tired so just put it back on, dunno if it would make too much difference if I cleaned it up.

Found an invoice for cambelt change which was at 70k in 2002. It's only done another 20k since the cambelt change but since its over 9 years should I get it done again?

[robert_e_smart]

Yep, change the belt on age grounds.

Italian Tune up; I do it when driving, makes less of a mess of the drive! Just select the gears manually from your selector and change 'em up.

[Dieselman]

The tune up isn't a case of driving at full revs, more giving it full load right through the rev range. This builds heat in the cylinder and forces the rings against the bores harder, so seats them properly.

I thought your Indie said the compression was low, yet glowplugs have fixed it...

[endorfin]

I thought your Indie said the compression was low, yet glowplugs have fixed it...

Not heard from the indie, that ZX is still dead as far as I know. Have bought another one as the missus needs one for work.

Started it this morning in below zero temp after fitting glowplugs, fired up in a millisecond.

Need to get the cambelt done soon as it was last done 9 years ago, although only done 20k in those 9 years. The previous owner only seemed to be doing 1500, 2000 miles a year, sometimes less going by the previous MOT's and service history. Interior is like new.

Still having some problems with the locks, I can lock the driver's door but needs a few tries and a bit of jiggling about to open it again. I do this it does/did have central locking as you can hear something electrically powered clicking away when you try to open the door again. How do I go about tracking down the problem, is there a control box for the CL?

[endorfin]

Would appreciate advice on this situation I find myself in. The ZX with the blown head gasket is still at the garage, who are ignoring my calls and emails. The tax and MOT have since expired and I have had to SORN the car, I only hope that the garage have got it parked off road.
I have since found out from the AA that they did not authorise repairs to go ahead to repair a blown head gasket, apparently the garage rang on 6th December to say it was a 'suspected' head gasket failure and the AA said to ring back for authorisation when full diagnosis had been made. The garage contacted me to say that the AA had given authorisation, I think he just assumed a standard head gasket repair would fix it and went ahead anyway. I don't know what the problem is or if they have attempted to try and fix it but it has been months now. I am already out of pocket for the cost of having the head skimmed etc to the tune of £220, the garage has done around £500 worth of work on the car which the AA were meant to be paying, which of course they won't until I sign it off as satisfactory so unless the garage fixes the problem they don't get paid but as things stand they have my car of which £720 has been spent and does not run.
What surprises me most is that this was a garage that I had been very happy with previously and they came recommended by other members of the other XM forum, they are an independent Citroen specialist.

[Dieselman]

See a Solicitor to obtain proper legal advice.
The garage has performed repairs without authorisation but claimed they were authorised by the AA.

This is an issue between the AA and the garage, not you, so write to the AA and the garage and instruct them to deal with this to your satisfaction, or at least so you are not out of pocket and preferably compensated for your inconvenience.