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MG MGF Technical - Removing wheels for head gasket replacement??

Just a quick one....

Just been back from a holiday, the technician calls me about removing one or two wheels to replace the faulty head gasket. Don't know much about cars, but what are they doing ??? Maybe this explains why such a giant cost can be reached.

Cheers,

Erik


Erik

I might answer them if they could remove one or two technicians at their dealership because of being moron!

Only when my engine had to be removed the wheels were removed, but for all the rest (and that was quite a bit ;) the wheels always were left on the car.
Dirk


Dirk!
Did you replace the HG yourself? If so, you have to be an extremely tiny midget. Carrying out an HGF repair is impossible without takong off the RH rear wheel, at least for the average norwegian. Luxembourg is a tiny country, are the natives sized to match?
And Erik, do you really think taking off a wheel is what makes the bill tall?
Jon A. Fredheim

The rear os wheel has to be removed if you want to ensure the timing marks on the crank pulley and timing case are correctly aligned which are exposed after removing wheel and coverpanel behind.
mike.
mike

Hi Erik,

Did you receive my fax the other day ? (invoice for head gasket replacement + clutch replacement + service). All in for just under BEF 60K.

Cheers
-- Luc --
Luc

Luc,

Yes, I received it succesfully. I'll let you of course know how my bill will look like.

Thanks again,


Jon A,

No, I don't think taking one wheel off makes the bill that large, but if they can't find the special socket (which was kept safely in the cubby box)... Anyway, just want to figure out if they know what they are doing or if they are just taking the car apart (i.e. removing the engine when not needed). Won't be the first time that something goes wrong.


Mike,

Thanks for the info.... it helps me to learn more about the car. So it's a good sign they removed a wheel. hehe

Thanks,
Erik

Erik, I'll have to remember looking up the invoice of solely a head gasket repair (I even got two of those invoices!) send that faxnumber to my work email address (@lu.arthur... you know :)

and remember, 30 lappen, not more or they're screwing ya.
(unless they messed up something else in the process:
like that story of a car falling of the ramp for a std maintenance! Some idiot forgot to put handbrake and kaboom!
They told the owner by phone (lady with no technical knowledge whatsoever) some tech blahblah excuses to keep the car a few 'extra days to fix additional discovered problems, FOC of course (ha ha)' and then were frantically repairing in secrecy the whole rear, chassis & suspension of the unfortunate dropped car)
She had it back a few days later as agreed, nothing special to be noticed, and she never knew anything of this incident! At least they did a great job repairing a car perfectly with a totally upwards-bent rear!

(ps: that was a BMW dealer in Belgium - uh oh! ;)
Dirk

I left my wheel nut remover at home at the last service, they had to use the one out of the showroom model because they don't keep one around the garage.

Are they all the same or do you have various sizes for security reasons? If they are all the same You would have thought Rover could have supplied them with a spare socket.

I don't know about the head gasket because Rover paid for that and it did not appear on the bill. Actually only the HGF and a small oil leak by the temp sensor, touch wood. I have had no other problems with the Engine (Touch Wood). So I'm not too well up on the cost of engine work. Now Dirk, he is the expert here...
Tony Smith

I have just had the head off an F and the RHR wheel does have to come off to check the timing marks.I changed the cam belt at the same time as the car has done 70000Ks.The Head Bolts are a revelation as they have to be individually checked for a specific length as they stretch. If you yhink the bill for the HG was high wait till next time when the bolts have to be replaced. In NZ they will double the price for the job.With the new HG fitted the strange intermittent overheating problem has gone. Apparently Rover 216s have the same strange overheating charicteristics and it is very hard to diognose as no chemical check will show the problem up.
Michael Hourigan

This thread was discussed between 08/03/2001 and 11/03/2001

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