The one time I have properly broken down
the AA guy towing me had to stop and get one of those Kia people carriers. The thing was two years old and had blown the head gasket.

Could be a freak accident, but sounds like shitty parts.
( Kroney, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:16, 2 replies, latest was 13 years ago)

Or a Friday car
not filled up with coolant/leaking, or lead-footed driver.
(localboy purveyor of pisspoor puns, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:20, Reply)

You'd have to go some to do a gasket
after two years pottering about no matter how roughly you treated it. Manufacturing defect, I'd have thought. Dodgy part or dodgy practice. Not a great sign, either way.
( Kroney, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:23, Reply)

Bollocks off, you're drawing your conclusions based on 1 incident.

(Bazongaloid, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:24, Reply)

And you're attempting to argue with me
based off no knowledge whatsoever.
( Kroney, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:32, Reply)

I'm not attempting, I'm pointing out, quite correctly, that you've based your dislike of a car based on one incident
I'm not saying they aren't shit, but unless you have multiple bits of evidence you're just spouting bollocks.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:38, Reply)

Well, I'm saying that it'd be tough to break a head gasket
in a two year old car however it was treated. Which is true. The fact that it did go is indicative that something else wasn't up to scratch.

I don't have an opinion on the car.
( Kroney, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:43, Reply)

Yes you do, you ahve clearely indicated that because one possibly defective head gasket made it onto a vehicle
that all Kia head gaskets are shit quality.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:47, Reply)

OK, yes, I did. Fair enough.
You don't seem to understand that breaking a two year head gasket is hard.

However I will, if it'll make it any better, say again as I did in the first post, that it "could have been a freak accident".
( Kroney, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:50, Reply)

True
any slight coolant leak and someone in the habit of clogging up the motorway at 100 or so every day could probably blow any car though.
(localboy purveyor of pisspoor puns, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:26, Reply)

My first car was a four year old Peugot 106 and it turned out to have a leaky head gasket

(Bazongaloid, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:23, Reply)

I had a Rover 214 do the head gasket twice
Never touch anything with a 1.4 K-series engine, they're shit.
(localboy purveyor of pisspoor puns, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:30, Reply)

you can dump the 1.4 part
It's the K series that's the problem. Iron block/ally head, and a head gasket made of metal. What's that you say? no flexibility in the gasket at all, and two metals that expand at different rates? Why, I can't see any issue there whatsover.

You can set your watch by 1.8 K series head gaskets going at 40,000 miles.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:36, Reply)

And the design
Like a motorbike engine, a sandwich with the head bolts all the way to the sump, so amy mistake in the tightening is a potential time bomb.
(localboy purveyor of pisspoor puns, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:39, Reply)

true.

( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:44, Reply)

That seems pretty bizarre.
One mistake by the apprentice on the torque wrench and you've got a potential cracked block.
( Kroney, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:46, Reply)

Yup, that page in the Haynes manual was proper scary
iirc there were 16 bolts to tighten to a certain setting in a particular sequence, then you had to tighten them a further quarter turn precisely in another sequence, or something like that, it was definitely two different stages. Immense potential for fuckup.
(localboy purveyor of pisspoor puns, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:53, Reply)

Somebody designed that engine and the procedure for it.
Once they were done they stood back and thought "yeah, that's reasonable, can't see any end user fucking that up".
( Kroney, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 13:15, Reply)

Far be it from me to criticise French manufacturing.
Four years of neglect would be understandable, though. Was it owned by somebody that hardly drove it? They need some oil around them to stop them drying out.
( Kroney, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:37, Reply)

Yeah, that's exactly what it was I think
One lady owner, and only did about 18K in four years.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:38, Reply)

Far be it for me to question you on matters relating to cars.
But it was more likely to have been manufactured in Coventry.
( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:41, Reply)

Haha, fair point.
God knows, Coventry is *right* up there in manufacturing quality.
( Kroney, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:42, Reply)

I've seen some of these people out in the city centre on a Saturday night.
Quality does not seem to be a primary concern.
( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:45, Reply)

It's that cunt Captain Placid isn't it
Even before I knew him he was trying to be a cunt to me.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 4 Jan 2013, 12:42, Reply)