Fault Finders Update-Total Nightmare!!!

[Guest]

Bl**dy Hell pass me ganja that makes for difficult reading!

Yeah I think that the recall notices were translated from Japanese, via Swahili, Singalese, Norwegian, Latvian, woodentop and then flowerpotmanish and then into english.



Cheers

[whitespider]

Muncher, Neville is right the only true way of knowing if your head is u/s is to whip it off and have it pressure tested, but if there are no symptoms don't worry.

Some symptoms that may indicate a problem:

Excessive pressure in the radiator pipes and rad cap.
Steam/white smoke from exhaust.
Oil in water and vice versa.
Full expansion tank.
Overheating regularly, or excessively once.

Some of these basic symptoms may be down to other gasket/cooling faults but they all occur at some stage in a cracked head.

If your head does go, shop around for a replacement and make sure its 'new'.
Get Toyota gaskets only.
Save around £1500 for the work.
But hopefully it ain't gonna happen.
Good luck and just enjoy the motor.
cheers
Ronnie

[whitespider]

Hi folks

well the surf is back at home- on probation.

The head was bolted back on and there is no overflow. Pressure is still there in the rad pipe but feels fairly normal. No change in water levels at the rad cap. Looking good, except the glow plugs seem to have packed up.

The problem was with both the head and the gasket.
The head was the new head that I sent back to Ukcylinderheads in the hope it would be replaced on account of its combustion chambers being loose, they said they fitted oversize ones and skimmed it.
Bought a gasket from Roughtrax. All info is in previous threads.

Sent head to engineering company to find out if it was faulty- it was.
They reset the chambers and skimmed it as the chambers fitted by Ukcylinderheads were 4 1000th proud. The gasket was tested at the same time and was found to be 8 1000ths thinner around the cylinders than around the edge of the gasket.
They provided a Toyota gasket and as I said all seems well.

I have a serious gripe to settle with Ukcylinders about this.
Anyone reading this please take note. In my opinion this company are dodgy and I hope to challenge them, legally about this.
Their heads may be cheap but so is their service and their aftersales.
I would love to crucify them for what they have put me and my family through the last 6 months.
The whole gig has been expensive and stressfull.

Last thing thanks to anyone who gave advice. I really appreciated the use of this site, it really helped during the bad times.

Hopefully this is coming to a close and i can enjoy a bit of trouble free surfin for a bit.

Fixed just in time for the fuel rises, yippee!

Thanks
Ronnie

[kevb]

you said uk cyl heads fitted new combustion chambers and skimmed the head.surely after skimming the head combustion chambers are level with rest of head? 4 thouands of an inch is a lot!average limit on most cyl heads for distortion/warpage is 0.05mm.4 thou =0.10mm.just curious

[Nipper]

I had a long discussion with a chap from Roughtrax about this and he explained that they don't need the old head back just the encillaries so i sent back all the bits minus the head. The head is binned and the rest cam etc re-cond.

I bought a RoughTrax stage 2 option which included Head (new but not Toyota) cam valves etc etc all new toyota parts and all toyota gaskets, belts etc. I then had new inhjectors and she started first time, took 30 minutes to clear air locks and have been checking her every day since (she has now done 1000k) she has not used a drop of oil or water, expansion tank is at perfect level and with the EGR mod and a damn good overhaul of manifolds etc she purrs!

I agree that it is an old engine and my motors 14 yrs old but having done the work with a mechanic friend i have seen everything for myself and i know its good, garages however i always worry about. We came across plenty of opportunities to cut corners on the rebuild and we made sure we did not, but at a garage? hmmm.

The only complaint i have about the roughtrax stuff is that the head still had cast sand in it! which with out real care in preparation could be catastrophic but the warranty stands and i complained the instant i found it in the chambers and ports and Roughtrax acknowledged the fact.

I have noticed a couple of places advertising in autotrader for genuine Toyota lumps fitted for about a £1000 - now this seems like a bargain but my mechanic friend pointed out that from his experience the deal is never as good as it sounds (he had to rebuild a Paj lump after a similar route was taken, turned out the majority was original Mitsi but the rest was very bad patent which subsequently broke, plus the rfitting was done shoddily)

Well its a contentious issue for sure, if i was you i would go elsewhere and seek legal advice. On something like this you should be able to get a conditional fee agreement (a bit like no win no fee) and subsequently sue the ass off the garage, if they think its down to the upplier then they can pursue that claim in their own time.

Either way i feel for you i hope something works out mate!

[Koi]

I had a long discussion with a chap from Roughtrax about this and he explained that they don't need the old head back just the encillaries so i sent back all the bits minus the head. The head is binned and the rest cam etc re-cond.

I bought a RoughTrax stage 2 option which included Head (new but not Toyota) cam valves etc etc all new toyota parts and all toyota gaskets, belts etc. I then had new inhjectors and she started first time, took 30 minutes to clear air locks and have been checking her every day since (she has now done 1000k) she has not used a drop of oil or water, expansion tank is at perfect level and with the EGR mod and a damn good overhaul of manifolds etc she purrs!

I agree that it is an old engine and my motors 14 yrs old but having done the work with a mechanic friend i have seen everything for myself and i know its good, garages however i always worry about. We came across plenty of opportunities to cut corners on the rebuild and we made sure we did not, but at a garage? hmmm.

The only complaint i have about the roughtrax stuff is that the head still had cast sand in it! which with out real care in preparation could be catastrophic but the warranty stands and i complained the instant i found it in the chambers and ports and Roughtrax acknowledged the fact.

I have noticed a couple of places advertising in autotrader for genuine Toyota lumps fitted for about a £1000 - now this seems like a bargain but my mechanic friend pointed out that from his experience the deal is never as good as it sounds (he had to rebuild a Paj lump after a similar route was taken, turned out the majority was original Mitsi but the rest was very bad patent which subsequently broke, plus the rfitting was done shoddily)

Well its a contentious issue for sure, if i was you i would go elsewhere and seek legal advice. On something like this you should be able to get a conditional fee agreement (a bit like no win no fee) and subsequently sue the ass off the garage, if they think its down to the upplier then they can pursue that claim in their own time.

Either way i feel for you i hope something works out mate!

well put, i agree you ar always in the hands of the garage and take what they say as gospel. Of course the garage could never have fitted the head wrongly, taken a short cut, then when all goes wrong blame the head itself. Garages would never do this sort of thing, they are far to honest. I wouldn't even take my car to the garage my son used to work at and his boss said he would do my service him self, yeah right.
Both me & Lucky (Andy) did our own heads and as said there was a few things that we could have cut corners on or equally forgot to put back on. Now if you had fogot to put something back on or cut a corner and it then caused damage are you the garage gonna say, sorry it was our fault we cut a corner and it didn't work or oops we left this off. But don't worry because we will buy you another head, or sorry mate but dunno where you got that head from but its a dodgy one.
We are always well for the most in the hands of the garage and generally take what they say as gospel.

[Nipper]

One last thing im a bit curios about. The gasket that was said to be uneven was it a Gen Toyota? because as far as im aware Roughtrax only do Genuine Toyota head gaskets as they get them in bulk and dirt cheap.

Mine came in a toyota sealed package with some verification seal over the entrance to the packet to verify genuine goods. I find it hard to beleive that the gasket would be out so much unless somebody cranked it up wrong when they fitted your head i.e. used the wrong torque's and or combination? or the chambers were proud and squashed it. But for one of a mass produced batch of cylinder head gaskets to be wrong is highly unlikely and i have not heard of anyone else having this problem.

Once again points a finger at the garage.

Sounds like UK Cylinderheads are just as shady mind, maybe you should start a thread asking if anyone else has had a similar encounter with their lack of customer services.

Hopefully all will be well now, fingers crossed

[whitespider]

Points taken everyone, but my big problem with UKcylinders is they said they had provided me with a genuine brand new head. This turned out to have very loose combustion chambers. They offered no warranty saying that it was warped and the warranty does not cover this.
They then offered to replace the chambers and skim it.
Did they skim it? and was the chamber job done OK.

According to an independant precision engineering firm the head was found to have proud chambers (by 4000th) and the chambers needed refitted.

Sounds to me like they threw in a set of chambers and sent it back saying it had been skimmed and they had tried their best.

As for the gasket at Roughtrax- when I contacted them to order a new one I was told that they did have non-genuine gaskets in stock but were not sure about any toyota, but expected some in shortly. They called back the same day to say they had a genuine gasket and it would be sent.
When it did arrive it did not come in any toyota wrapping or labelled toyota, unlike the one bought from toyota. Of course that doesn't mean much but in the light of the engineers feedback, maybe they did send a non-genuine.

As for the garage, they have not been angels, but they have just given me the bill for the 11 weeks it sat in their garage, during this they did a complete engine strip down, steering gear off, pistons out, big ends checked visually, they also have had to remove and refit the head 4 times, including fitting new injectors. The bill was £450. This does not sound like profiteering to me.

I am not out to bad mouth people who don't deserve it, and I allow Roughtrax the benefit of the doubt, I don't feel they are dodgy.
UKCylinder I most certainly do think are a bit shonky.

Their attitude is very poor. I do not believe that these heads are toyota heads
I don't believe they did what they said they had.
I did everything to satisfy their warranty, according to the paper work sent with the new head, but still they rejected my warranty.
At one stage I had to threaten legal action to get them to return my head. It arrived over a week after they had told me it had been sent. I contacted the courier who confirmed it had been collected on order only the day before I rang.

If I had recieved a good head in the first place non of this would have happened.

So really a lot of this comes down to trust. Those who can do their own head replacement will have less worry, but those who can't will have to sweat a little.

Anyway eveyone on this site will have different experiences, and thats good but don't expect me to jump for joy about all of this. I really hope this never happens to anyone, even the git building his house opposite me who's ruining my view.
take care
Ronnie

[Nipper]

I amazed you have maintained so much pleasntness! i would be screaming blue murder having gone through all that!

I don't know what your thoughts are but from the last post and in my professional opinion (nb to one and all, does not mean free legal advice all round. hee hee) you have a very strong case for a contractual claim on three heads: 1. under the supply of goods and services act and 2. supply of goods act and 3. for the breach of the expressed term regarding warranty.

Furthermore, you have a potential tortious claim for negligence.

all of which could be brought relatively inexpensively and based on your account with a good opportunity for success and recovery of your costs so far.

[pls note this is all based on the limited facts availible to me and is given as friendly advice and is by no means to be acted upon without full consultation of a solicitor]

Anyway hope she holds up ok now.

Nipper

[whitespider]

Thanks for the info Nipper, I won't quote you.
Thanks for the goodwill as well.
Cheers
Ronnie