Ferrari 355 in for service, back with cracked head!!!!
Discussion
My 355 went in to have the clutch replaced 4 weeks ago and whilst in i thought i'd get serviced, have the wheels refurbed and a stone chip bumper re-spray. I was given prices and told it would be two weeks. After a week and a half i contacted the garage to discover they'd not even started any of the works and it would now be a further week. After much more f
ing about i was eventually told i could collect the car yesterday (thursday 23rd march). at the last minute i was told there was a problem, that a technician had taken the car for a final test drive and that steam started pouring out of the left cylinder bank but thy didn't know why. This morning, before they actually looked at it, they called to tell me that they've just 'remembered' that when they serviced the car, it had no anti-freeze in it and that the water has probably frozen and cracked the head!!!! How cold would it have had to be for that to happen? I suspect a lot colder than it has been in the south-east lately, especially as the car has supposedly been kept in their workshop the entire time! Any thoughts???
ing about i was eventually told i could collect the car yesterday (thursday 23rd march). at the last minute i was told there was a problem, that a technician had taken the car for a final test drive and that steam started pouring out of the left cylinder bank but thy didn't know why. This morning, before they actually looked at it, they called to tell me that they've just 'remembered' that when they serviced the car, it had no anti-freeze in it and that the water has probably frozen and cracked the head!!!! How cold would it have had to be for that to happen? I suspect a lot colder than it has been in the south-east lately, especially as the car has supposedly been kept in their workshop the entire time! Any thoughts???When they serviced the car the antifreeze would have been checked and should of been topped up to the recomended spec!! Totaly there falt if you ask me! The hole point of the service is to make sure things like that don't happen!!
Just had a re read and if they left it outside before the service it might be possible, It would never freeze in the workshop!
>> Edited by ngr on Friday 24th March 13:59
Just had a re read and if they left it outside before the service it might be possible, It would never freeze in the workshop!
>> Edited by ngr on Friday 24th March 13:59
dmitsi said:
Sounds like they've been negligent to me, 'remembering' the coolant was empty is a poor excuse for knackering a car.
Yep, a paragraph at the end of this covers it i believe. When you gave them the car it had no problems. They then serviced it and broke it while in their care. Their cost to repair.
www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/calitem.cgi?file=ADV0046-1011.txt
Oh who did the last service? Can you get them to confirm that they did indeed use antifreeze in the coolant. Obviously if it was the same garage they are still liable.
>> Edited by Munter on Friday 24th March 17:38
Cheers Munter. By the way the last service was done at Verdi who I have been told are pretty good and it was done in June. I think its a bit strange that the car could have survived October, November, December, January and February and then freeze up in March after Kent High Performance had it for two weeks!
huntsman said:
I beleive that water is at a greater volume at about 3 or 4 degs centigrade than it is when frozen solid.
So maybe very cold workshop would be cold enough to do it, praps they left it ootside...
no its most dense at 3-4 deg C after that it starts getting expanding hence why pipes pop when they freeze not when you run cold water through them
turbobungle said:
My 355 went in to have the clutch replaced 4 weeks ago and whilst in i thought i'd get serviced, have the wheels refurbed and a stone chip bumper re-spray. I was given prices and told it would be two weeks. After a week and a half i contacted the garage to discover they'd not even started any of the works and it would now be a further week. After much more f
How do they know steam is pouring out the left cyl bank its a shared rad system,was there any antifreeze in it?,the content should be cheaked on service and before road test,do you garge the car,have you driven it in extreme cold or left it outside before it went in,i certainly would'nt like to fork out for a new head casting,and in an ideal world the other would need to come off to keep the comp's balanced,
Dale.
Sounds very dodgy to me. Cracked head from water freezing. It would have to be damn cold for that to happen inside a building.
As for no antifreeze, how long has it been running without any? Perhaps it has just corroded through the head to the surface instead of cracking?? This means the whole engine could be on its way out?
If it is just a cracked head on the outside surface, just take it off and weld the crack up. Simple really.
As for no antifreeze, how long has it been running without any? Perhaps it has just corroded through the head to the surface instead of cracking?? This means the whole engine could be on its way out?
If it is just a cracked head on the outside surface, just take it off and weld the crack up. Simple really.
aldi said:
How's this for a scenario... Hot engine, Cold water, oops? What do we tell the customer?
That sounds more like it...
If they hadn't checked before the test drive it hadn't any anti-freeze, whats the chances the water level was checked at all.
Drive, overheat, ooops, add water... opoppppssss!
Dave
It sounds to me like, just as when any car comes into the garage which has a bit of poke, all the mechanics want to give it a good thraping to see what it can do! If they had forgotten to top the water up, or indeed changed it and not bled it up correctly leaving air in the system, it is quite likely that the engine would overheat and hey presto (meltdown)!!!!!!!!!!!
pdmotors said:
It sounds to me like, just as when any car comes into the garage which has a bit of poke, all the mechanics want to give it a good thraping to see what it can do! If they had forgotten to top the water up, or indeed changed it and not bled it up correctly leaving air in the system, it is quite likely that the engine would overheat and hey presto (meltdown)!!!!!!!!!!!
you'll find that the guy's have probably driven many of them before,you get use'd to them and its just like road testing anyother car.
Surely the engine has core plugs? Either way, there are plenty of weaker places to break before a head cracks! It's not been cold enough for this to happen so I guess that you're being fed a load of bull. I would need convincing before I paid for the repairs and I'd get an independant report from somewhere (AA) as to what the fault actually is before shelling out a load of dosh. Could be a blown head gasket. You need to see the parts.
Boosted.
Boosted.
Boosted LS1 said:
Surely the engine has core plugs? Either way, there are plenty of weaker places to break before a head cracks! It's not been cold enough for this to happen so I guess that you're being fed a load of bull. I would need convincing before I paid for the repairs and I'd get an independant report from somewhere (AA) as to what the fault actually is before shelling out a load of dosh. Could be a blown head gasket. You need to see the parts.
Boosted.
no core plugs in these engine's
thong said:
Surely the engine has core plugs? Either way, there are plenty of weaker places to break before a head cracks! It's not been cold enough for this to happen so I guess that you're being fed a load of bull. I would need convincing before I paid for the repairs and I'd get an independant report from somewhere (AA) as to what the fault actually is before shelling out a load of dosh. Could be a blown head gasket. You need to see the parts.
Boosted.
no core plugs in these engine's
Gosh, I'm surprised to hear that! Do you know why that is? I still don't think coolant would have cracked a head though so a fuller inspection is warranted.
Boosted.
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