tradgedy strikes....of course

[DigitalK]

just bought my car.... but then this happens....

On the way home from work...hm...the heat stopped working.... no good. Its freezing. Wait a sec, the temp gauge is climbing....WAIT A SECOND WHATS THE SMELL! ****! So I drove about 1/4 mile, and stopped, let her cool down. Drove 1/4 mile...repeat, repeat. Till I finally got home. She is cooling off from her temper tantrum now. I havent had a chance to look w/ a flashlight yet to see whats going on. I think I inhaled a bit too much on the coolant vapors too. From immediate inspection its coming from the left side of the block. Hoses seem ok.

so I popped off the timing cover to see whats up. Inbetween the head and the block is gushing coolant. The guy who I bought the car from said he did a new head gasket I'm like ***! I shut the car off right away. I'm like, whelp....gotta pull the head off. I took the valve cover off, and started to loosen the headbolts...uh the left bottom corner one where it was leaking wasnt even TIGHT. What? How the hell does this happen? If the guy changed the head gasket did he not torque this one down? So I pull the bolt out and look at it, looks fine. I put it back in but it won't thread properly... so I take a closer look after cleaning the bolt off. Head bolts aren't supposed to look like this are they




I didnt think so. So Im like crap, IM going to have to take the head off and use a helicoil to get at this stuff...and retap it. So I get the head off and what do I see? someone already helicoiled it, and ***ed it up




so.... my budget is 180$. Im ***ed. The car is going to sit for quite awhile and I have no way to get to work. Viscious viscous cycle. I dont even know what to do....

[jtanguay]

the guy you bought the car off is a jerk...  basically patched it up to run for a few km's until the stress on the bolt gave out and voila...   shall we start a fund ?  :?

[jackbombay]

  Lame. How long ago did you buy it? I'd go talk to the guy and try to get my money back.

[935racer]

SO how the heck do you screw up the threads the first time, and than a second time with helicoils??? Its a cast iron block!!! What a tool the PO must have tried hammering the bolts in like nails or something. I can't believe some people try to sell stuff they know is toasted like that. My dad has this great thing on his farm called an incinerator....

[Black Smokin' Diesel]

I believe here in canada there's a law that says if the PO knows something is wrong with the car but he doesn't tell you and it "blows up", you can go to court against him and if you win he takes back the car and gives you your money back. It's called the "hidden flaw" law or something. I don't know where you are located but you might want to check that out with a lawyer or someone who knows about such situations.

Good luck man, POs sure suck.

[DigitalK]

Digitalk, where are you located?

Severely unethical behavior on the part of the PO.  I'd be having some words with him.

Andrew

I'm in minnesota. I bought the car about 3 weeks ago or something I dont have his phone number so Im waiting for a return on the IM on vortex I sent him showing him the thread. He seemed really nice so I dont know

[935racer]

I like my incinerator idea better, I hate people that do this. :evil:

[DigitalK]

the guy made it right. unfortunately she wont be a diesel anymore when I'm all done. I bought an obd1 2.0 crossflow donor car.... :oops:

[vwmike]

That sucks, but at the same time i think we all can understand how cheap gas engines are compared to diesels. What is this car anyways? MK2?

[malone]

That was a frustrating read... bummer

Is the landlord OK with you working on your car in the building parking lot?

[malone]

That sucks, but at the same time i think we all can understand how cheap gas engines are compared to diesels. What is this car anyways? MK2?

I think this is the car, a MK1:



Look at how clean the engine is! Quite deceiving :evil:

[jackbombay]

the guy made it right.

   That's good, at least he dealt with the situation.  :?

[vwmike]

Malone - wow that looks like a big f*cking mess.  

If that's the car that broke I'd just find another 1.6D to swap in. I've done ABA swaps before and it's pretty easy and all, but that rabbit is so clean looking I'd hate to make it all busy looking with an ABA.

Feel lucky though. I bought this 79 Rabbit from some guy a few blocks away. As he said "the block is cracked". I thought "yeah...right....not unless the bolt holes were full of coolant when you tightened the head back down". Sure enough, that's what he did. The block is cracked worse than I've ever seen before. The bolts also never got tight enough so the gasket ended up more blown than any head gasket I've ever seen. I just grabbed an NA 1.6D to throw in there as soon as I get a chance. It's amazing how badly people can screw things up when they try and play mechanic.

[935racer]

Ok that makes sense now, I was wondering how you could screw those things up.

[DigitalK]

the landlord came to ask if I was "changing my oil" (prior to me dropping the block upside down and spilling it.  I said no sir, no oil change. Just an engine change  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  Putting the motor IN won't be happening here however....

today ive been at boost factory working with the onwer taking an automatic tranny out of a mkII to put a new one in to make room in the shop for my car.... I tell ya, nothing I have ever done on a car sucks more than this ****ing piece of **** mkII tranny swap. What a ****ing **** show... ****!