suspected gasket problem

[d2me]

Hi guys

sorry to be a pain but just bought a 55 plate fiesta a few months ago from a reasonably price local dealer and have a suspected gasket problem on it now. was a great price so maybe that's my problem to start with :)

as stated we had the car a few months. my girlfriend has only done a few hundred miles to drive around the corner to work. the car has just over 70k on it.

The high temp alarm started flashing the other day on a short local trip. we pull over and all of our water was gone out of the refill reservoir. we filled this with water. Temps and everything seemed back to normal after toping it up a little more. We phone the guys we had bought it from and they very happily said to pop it in for a check up. As I'm an untrusting git I popped it into our local mot/service station first and told them the problem. they agreed and said it sounded like a head gasket problem. They tested with a chemical kit. It was ok for a 5 minutes test on normal tick over. but when in high revs it caused a slight colour change. the mechanic also said it sounds like its misfiring on one cylinder too and to take it back to dealers. on telling my other half about possible power problems, she said that she had noticed a drop in power over the last 2 months. my mechanic also said that sometimes the test will come back negative, but the fumes may be passing though the exhaust, so its not necessarily detectable ? Phoning the dealer back up with this information, they told me to bring it back in and leave it for there mechanic to look at it (they lent my girlfriend a Corsa for the interim. it was awful and made us happy on choosing a fiesta as we were also looking at corsa's).

A week later they called and said to come and get it. being very shy with information on the phone to my girlfriend, so I went to collect. The guy informed me that he had his mechanic check it over. he couldn't find anything wrong. but he gave it a full service anyways. emptying water and refilling checking for air locks etc. along with the other bits he did. so the dealer used it all week to drive it to and from customers and did approx. 70 miles in it to check (our petrol the cheeky so and so). he said it didn't drop a beet and was a great little car. He also said that he could but he wouldn't charge us for all the work and time. I suggested I would take it into a ford dealer to check it fully.he said that wasn't necessary and to keep an eye on it, bring it back if there was anymore problems. I wasn't happy as there wasn't a real problem found. 

so this is now my problem. the 3 month warrantee is out in the next few weeks, so if we leave it as he said and it went again we would then have to foot the full bill.

firstly how much do you guys think it will be for fords to plug it in and say everything is fine? 

secondly should I pay for a pressure check on all the cylinders? if so how much do you think approx.

thirdly could I pass the costs on to the dealer if found at fault?

Fourthly could they do a print out on there findings to take back to the dealer?

sorry to be so long winded but I didn't know what information was relevant in this case.

thanks for your time

dave

[d2me]

just a thought. could kseal have been put in by the dealer and if so, is there a test?

book in at ford close to us for a full diagnostic, preasure test and chemical leak test. all comes under the diagnostics for £114. not bad for peace of mind. and they give you a full report on the diagnostic.

cheers for your time again guys

dave

[DieselPig]

Sounds like a bunch of cowboys, the 3 month warranty is irrelevant, you are covered for 6 months for any faults that were present or developing from the date of sale.

He should not be charging you for faults.

[Tdci-Peter]

10 hours ago, d2me said:

could kseal have been put in by the dealer and if so, is there a test?

K-seal should be pretty obvious, there will be tiny shiny flecks in the coolant, like glitter. I am not sure about other HG sealants like Steel-seal, but pull out some coolant, it should be a nice clear pinky-orange colour if it is the proper Ford long-life stuff. Not grey and foggy or opaque.

I hate the idea of giving money to Fraud Stealer, I hear so many bad things about them on this site! But for the peace of mind in this case, it might be the best plan. Especially if it does include a proper cylinder compression test.