What could be the problem?

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Fuma

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While driving, that pipe from the radiator to the engine (What do you call it?).
It got loose on the radiator's side while i was driving and the car obviously overheated since all the water came out. The was a huge steam.

I managed to clamp it back again. Put some water, but the can't start anymore. So I asked my friend to tow it to my place.

I left it the whole night thinking maybe it's because the engine is still hot. Tried it again this morning, but still it can't start.

So what could have broken?
Any mechy here?
 
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The head has been damaged and the head gasket has gone, she won't start. What make and model of car.

Either way you're looking at a hefty bill in terms of repair.
 
Opel Astra :eek:
I'm waiting for JK8 to say something :D

If head gasket is dead, how much am I looking at fro them repairs?
 
Oh ****....

sorry Heita Hola, you're looking at R8k minimum. The heads on Opels, you really need to be very careful with them. You're gonna need a head gasket, and some engineering on the head itself. There are some people on the Opel Owners Club forum that might be able to do it for you cheaper but I wouldn't say that you should go for this route, unless the car is out of warranty and you feel you can trust a home mechanic.

I'm waiting for JK8 to say something
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Many people think Opels are kuk I know- the trick is to get into a regular regimen of weekly checks with these cars. You really need to check the water and water pipes on a weekly basis. I do this and mine has proved to be more reliable than that piece of kuk Mazda I had previously.
 
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I have been wanting to get rid of this car for sometime now coz i had a couple of costly issues with this ***** car.

Once I'm done with them repairs, I'm getting rid of it and buy a Toyota.

Toyota FTW
 
Astras are a problem, that's why I don't touch them with a barge pole. GM's smaller ones are no trouble at all if you look after them properly.

At least you should get a decent trade-in with this car.
 
Even if the head gasket is gone, the car should still start, unless you drove for long with no water. Look in the water reservoir (or radiator itself), is it clean water or are there traces of oil? If there are traces of oil, it's really bad.

Take out the spark plugs, check they are ok.

The cost will depend on how severe the damage is, you could just get away with a new gasket (in which case the labor will be the most expensive part) or you may need to take the entire head to get 'skimmed'. It shouldn't cost 'TOO' much, provided you don't take it to the dealer. You could get away with R2,000, or even less in my opinion. R8K is absolute madness, you can recondition an entire engine for that.
 
Velenoso said:
Even if the head gasket is gone, the car should still start, unless you drove for long with no water. Look in the water reservoir (or radiator itself), is it clean water or are there traces of oil? If there are traces of oil, it's really bad.

Take out the spark plugs, check they are ok.

The cost will depend on how severe the damage is, you could just get away with a new gasket (in which case the labor will be the most expensive part) or you may need to take the entire head to get 'skimmed'. It shouldn't cost 'TOO' much, provided you don't take it to the dealer. You could get away with R2,000, or even less in my opinion. R8K is absolute madness, you can recondition an entire engine for that.
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Not if the valve guides have seized and the pistons have hit the open seized vales and damaged everything.
 
They are just scaring you.

Yes, it will be a headgasket - Replacement needs to be done at a dealer as the head might be warped and needs to be skimmed. But things like valves and what not can;t happen unless the Cambelt breaks.

But yea, depending from garage to garage, about R 4000.00 to have it repaired
 
Well guys, 8k that's what it costs if you take it to a GM dealership. Of course I said that if you take it elsewhere it will be cheaper but I don't want to end up with egg on my face should someone take my advice and end up getting a bum deal because it is all outside of my control.

In my experience, with an Astra, if you lose water, and the head gasket goes, the car will not start at all, you can try as much as you like. The reason for this is that Opels tend to use vast amounts of oil at the point of overheat. So you will also find your engine has got like a smidgin of oil in it. This is a characteristic of these cars. Happened to friends of ours. Had to get them towed in. I replaced the gasket, and had the head skimmed, replaced the oil and then only did the motor start.

But, don't take my word for it.

Go read up on www.opelownersforum.co.za
 
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The same problem cost my mother R 15k for my Corsa back in Delta rip off days. :sick:
 
Pitbull said:
They are just scaring you.

Yes, it will be a headgasket - Replacement needs to be done at a dealer as the head might be warped and needs to be skimmed. But things like valves and what not can;t happen unless the Cambelt breaks.

But yea, depending from garage to garage, about R 4000.00 to have it repaired
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oh, but why not suggest a DIY which should cost him R1k :D
 
The less I spend on that shyte, the better. I just want to get rid of it when it gets fixed & buy a Toyota or Honda.

If I can get a machy and pay few bucks, i'll immediately trade it in. Sorry for the person who'll buy it.
 
As they other guys mentioned the head gasket propably broke. I dont know of you opened the oil filler cap and checked inside but if you have not, do so. Hopefully everything is still black but if you see pudding you have successfully joint oil and water.

You will need to take the car in for serious inspection. Hopefully just the head gasket broke but if it overheated to much for to long the head and engine block in some cases can crack.

Nice complete engine overhaul for ya.

Good luck.
 
Just an update on my car.

I took it to these car service guys in PTA, and they told me the same thing that every mechanic I've talked to, that the head gasket is farked up.

After they looked at the car, they said it was going to take them 2 days to work on the car. Max 3 days.
So they had to take the top for engineering, and those guys at the engineering company apparently took longer than expected. They could cut this and that properly so they had to take the top back and forth for a proper engineering.
The whole going back & forth engineering shyt took about a week or so.

Then after they had the top properly done, they said it will take a day or so. Every time I go to them, they tell me “come tomorrow morning”. It’s been almost 5 weeks now.

I think they farked-up my car. I think they just don't know how to fix cars. So what do I do now?
I want to tow my car to another mechanic, but I’m sure they will want their money for the parts. By the way they said there were other parts that were broken as well, so they had to replace them.

I’m afraid it will cost me more if I take it to another mechanic and these motherfarkers might even take the parts that they supposedly bought.

What do I do?
 
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