Hi,

I hope someone can help a rather exasperated SMAX owner. Apologies for the detail but hopefully it helps.

08 Plate Titanium SMAX, 2.0 TDi, 88000 miles on the clock. I have owned for the last 4 years and besides a few minor issues no real problems, in fact it has been a great family car.

About a week ago it dropped into Limp mode and I took it straight round to the local independent garage. There were no faults recorded. It was diagnosed as damage to the leak off pipes which were then replaced.

The next journey in the car (apart from a 0.5 mile trip home from the garage) it went back in to limp mode. Journey was approx 15 miles. It was then left for about 3 hours before trying to return home. At this point it did not restart, in fact on turning over it made no sound at all. Eventually after about 3 or 4 attempts it restarted and was driven the 15 miles home, initially it drove ok before dropping back into limp mode after about 7miles. It was then taken round to the same independent garage.

On inspection it now appears to have lost all coolant (I am assured this was at the correct level on leaving the garage after previous visit), blown a hose (not sure which one, sorry) and appears to have cooked the oil (appears crusty and dry on dipstick). On attempting to start it there is no compression in the engine.

The independent garage is now telling me that the Head gasket is gone, they could replace this however they would not be confident that there has been no damage to the bottom half of the engine and are advising that in their view the engine is not worth fixing and therefore I am left with the options of putting in a new engine or trading in as a non-runner (worth only £1500 versus the £6000 prior to all of this).

Thinking back over the previous week I noticed that the car did judder a little under acceleration (similar symptoms as described in many dpf issues) and that the main fan was on when I got out of the car.

I am trying to understand:

- Do I have any other options other than those already suggested

- Has the work that the Independent Garage done to replace the Leak off pipes contributed to or caused the HG failure or has it just been that the have not fully diagnosed the issue in the first place?

My plan is to trade the car in however I guess I am looking for a 2nd opinion to understand if it is worth spending some money on it to get it working again.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this.

Leak off pipes incidental to your problem, think your engine had it, crusty debris on dipstick bad sign. Dv10 dont like being cooked for long.

Thanks for replying. At least I know its terminal.

The alternative option is to get a used engine and swap it over. You could get an engine for about £1500 - £2000 and get it swapped over for about £1000 at an indie - Perhaps even less!