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Hi,
I've had a 1991 2.4 TD Surf for about 1 year now and up until the beginning of this year it ran fine. Then the first overheating problem occurred. Changed the radiator and all seemed fine until about June when it was overheating again. It sounded like the coolant was boiling. Took it to a local Surf 'specialist' who diagnosed it as a cracked head, so on went a new head and a couple of new piston rings (don't ask me why). £1200 later the car is back but still overheating. The garage now found that the radiator was getting hot one side and not the other pointing to a blockage. Rather than buy one of theirs off the shelf I got mine refurbished with a new, more efficient core. On goes the radiator, nicely heating up both ends but its still overheating with the top hose pressurising and going solid.
The garage thought it was now a cracked block. By now I was not amused with them. On taking the head off it was found that there was pitting to the top of one of the cylinders which is causing thermal, or water, detonation and a new block was needed. Could someone explain thermal detonation?
At this point I do not want to spend another £1000 on having another block put in and then finding something else is wrong. So where do I stand with the garage as I would have thought when they had the head off the first time they would have spotted the pitting. Are they breaching the Sale of Goods Act or can they just say the problem was always there and therefore not their fault?
Thanks
I've had a 1991 2.4 TD Surf for about 1 year now and up until the beginning of this year it ran fine. Then the first overheating problem occurred. Changed the radiator and all seemed fine until about June when it was overheating again. It sounded like the coolant was boiling. Took it to a local Surf 'specialist' who diagnosed it as a cracked head, so on went a new head and a couple of new piston rings (don't ask me why). £1200 later the car is back but still overheating. The garage now found that the radiator was getting hot one side and not the other pointing to a blockage. Rather than buy one of theirs off the shelf I got mine refurbished with a new, more efficient core. On goes the radiator, nicely heating up both ends but its still overheating with the top hose pressurising and going solid.
The garage thought it was now a cracked block. By now I was not amused with them. On taking the head off it was found that there was pitting to the top of one of the cylinders which is causing thermal, or water, detonation and a new block was needed. Could someone explain thermal detonation?
At this point I do not want to spend another £1000 on having another block put in and then finding something else is wrong. So where do I stand with the garage as I would have thought when they had the head off the first time they would have spotted the pitting. Are they breaching the Sale of Goods Act or can they just say the problem was always there and therefore not their fault?
Thanks
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