Head gasket issue with a Mazda

[a_sun_of_beach]

my friend has a 2001 mazda 626 6Cyl. and she has been taking it to the mechanic ("family friend":rolleyes:) since august 2009 where timing belts, water pump etc were replaced because of a "possible leak". The car over heated again and this "family friend" replaced a whole bunch of other things ( even things that had nothing to do with "over heating" like spark plugs and wiring ). Now less than a month after this him telling us that the overheating problem is fixed, the car over heated again... this time he says he is not sure if there is an internal cylinder gasket leak or not but he can see an external leak.

 

Now i guess what i'm trying to ask is 2 things:

1. If you as a mechanic charged $179.99 just for diagnosis of the leak, would you have seen this "external leak" at the time of "diagnosis"?

 

2. The mechanic "family friend" wants to charge $1000 Plus $400 for the parts which i can get from ebay and other online stores for $150 to $250(max. for felpro brand). i just want to get rid of the car... sell it so that we dont have to deal with problems/cost/time. what is the best way to go?

 

3. The car runs on normal temperature as long as it has water/anti-freeze in it. before taking it to mechanic this last time, the water lasted in there for about 3 days. Do you think it will be a good idea to fix "nothing" and just have enough water in it and an extra gallon in the trunk for test drive etc. in order to sell the car?

 

any advice would help. The car was purchased for $5000, >100K miles, spend over $2000 over the past year for repairs and looking at another $1400. what would be the best thing to do.

 

thanks

Edited July 23, 2010 by Qman

[iluvdrt]

first of all, Thank you for your post. It was very helpful.

 

my friend has a 2001 mazda 626 6Cyl. and she has been taking it to the mechanic ("family friend":rolleyes:) since august 2009 where timing belts, water pump etc were replaced because of a "possible leak". The car over heated again and this "family friend" replaced a whole bunch of other things ( even things that had nothing to do with "over heating" like spark plugs and wiring ). Now less than a month after this him telling us that the overheating problem is fixed, the car over heated again... this time he says he is not sure if there is an internal cylinder gasket leak or not but he can see an external leak.

 

Now i guess what i'm trying to ask is 2 things:

1. If you as a mechanic charged $179.99 just for diagnosis of the leak, would you have seen this "external leak" at the time of "diagnosis"?

 

2. The mechanic "family friend" wants to charge $1000 Plus $400 for the parts which i can get from ebay and other online stores for $150 to $250(max. for felpro brand). i just want to get rid of the car... sell it so that we dont have to deal with problems/cost/time. what is the best way to go?

 

3. The car runs on normal temperature as long as it has water/anti-freeze in it. before taking it to mechanic this last time, the water lasted in there for about 3 days. Do you think it will be a good idea to fix "nothing" and just have enough water in it and an extra gallon in the trunk for test drive etc. in order to sell the car?

 

any advice would help. The car was purchased for $5000, >100K miles, spend over $2000 over the past year for repairs and looking at another $1400. what would be the best thing to do.

 

thanks

 

You cannot "find" an external leak unless it is physically leaking from the head gasket. The only other detection method is a hydrocarbon test taken from the radiator filler neck. Most "mom and pop" shops do not have this. If they didn't drive it and didn't catch it pushing coolant then they would have detected it.

 

My best advice:

 

Sell it and cut your losses. It happens sometimes.

Edited July 23, 2010 by Qman

[a_sun_of_beach]

You cannot "find" an external leak unless it is physically leaking from the head gasket. The only other detection method is a hydrocarbon test taken from the radiator filler neck. Most "mom and pop" shops do not have this. If they didn't drive it and didn't catch it pushing coolant then they would have detected it.

 

My best advice:

 

Sell it and cut your losses. It happens sometimes.

 

thank you for your reply. The mechanic lifted the car and from underneath, he pointed at an area that had "white" stain. i did not see anything leaking but he said that it's leading from there. I should've taken a picture to show you. He said that it's not the "head gasket" but it's the "cylinder gasket". and that it is not an "internal leak" , instead it is an "external" leak.

 

Is there a test that would confirm an "external leak" because when i asked him, he said,"i can look at the leak, what more test do i need than physically looking at the leak".

[danbennett2u]

I am not a master mechanic, but I havent heard of a "cylinder gasket"

 

Best course of action in any case it to get a second opinion from a reputable shop, preferably one that specializes in Mazdas.

 

When you get your second opinion, if it matches the first then you can consider selling the car, etc, but I have a feeling that the second opinion is going to be a bit different than the "family friend" Cooling systems aren't that hard to diagnose when things are wrong, a reputable shop should be able to figure it out definitively.