Help Needed Head Gasket Gone Again

[carlady]

Hello
Help needed
I purchased
my ford focus in feb 2010 new then after 20,000 miles and 18 months later the
head gasket went - the dealer garage repaired it for free-now 20 months and
40,000 miles the head gasket has gone again, i have always had the car serviced
with the dealer
Is this normal ??? or is there a problem with the car ???

[jeebowhite]

Welcome to the forums.

It does sound highly irregular but feasible. Have the dealers suggested that they are going to replace as in warranty again?

[carlady]

The dealer has said the cost would be £2000 and they would contribute £700 towards it making the bill £1300 for me does this seem right or was the first fault not solved which was under warrenty

[wase16ll]

i take it you mean car has done 40k in total, not 40k since last HG. if so then i think you need to ask why the HG keeps blowing

if there is a fault on the head/block/gasket that keeps making it blow then i would at least push for a bigger contribution if not full warranty...

have you been losing water/temp rising higher than normal prior to failure or has it been sudden and with little or no warning?

[carlady]

Hello

The car has done 40,000 since the new gasket

The garage say they dont know the reason why it has gone again

It went slowly i had to fill it with water twice over two weeks so i booked it straight into the garage

[wase16ll]

40k is a lot for garage to honour a warranty, so at this stage i think that is quite a fair offer.

but i would really push for a full diagnosis on why HG went this time...

by rights, HG should only blow if car overheats or if there is a fault with the HG/ cylinder head/block itself,

were you given any reason why it went the first time?

[carlady]

I have asked several times why it went originally when the car was only 10 months old and i have not been given a reason

[wase16ll]

its a tough call, i have changed many head gaskets at 60k or less over the years.

at best i think you could try and push for a bigger contribution, but it could easily be down to a leak elsewhere or a failed thermostat for eg, that caused the blow this time...

it maybe just bad luck this time, but push for full diagnosis on why it went this time round

[carlady]

Thanks for the advice,will give it a try

[jeebowhite]

I would suggest contact Ford customer service, and advise the issue to them. Advise that as this is still seemingly an issue from the original warranty request, that you believe its fair to have it covered under the same claim, as this has only masked the issue, and not resolved it.

If they replaced any other gasket, and then the HG went, fine, its a seperate claim, but if you replace a tyre because the trackings out, buy a new tyre and run the tyre down again for exactly the same problem, why did the second tyre run down? the issue was never fixed, it was just hidden.

[hubby1959]

Years ago there used to be an issue with the triumph stag blowing head gaskets, and it turned out it was to do with the cooling system/radiator being blocked, which caused overheating and thus blowing the head gasket.

The cure was to ensure the system was free from blockage and anti-freeze kept in the system all year round.

So what i'm saying is that it might not be a head gasket problem, but a cooling system fault that causes the gasket to blow.

I'd be tempted to get them to flush the entire cooling system and radiator, and hope that's the end of the matter