Any mechanics around? Need advice

[CeciliaMcFlange]

My car has had a major breakdown and the garage are saying that the head gasket has blown and it needs a whole new engine - does anyone who knows a bit more about cars than I do have any idea if it's just bad luck or possibly a mistake by the garage . . . ??

I have a 8 year old car, always been super reliable blah blah. On 3rd Dec 2019 it had a full (very expensive) service. Just before Xmas the aircon conked out and I took it back to the garage to get it fixed.

On leaving the garage after about 3kms of driving all power went and the car totally broke down with no way of restarting it. I got it towed back to the garage and they rang yesterday to say that there was no coolant in the engine and consequently it had overheated (no dashboard lights or indication of overheating), the head gasket had blown and it needs a new engine.

As a totally non mechanical person it seems to me that theres a possibility of the garage having stuffed up and not replaced the coolant at the major service in Dec. Could this cause the subsequent engine blow up?

The car has always been well looked after and we've never had a problem - anyone got any ideas?

Wahhh my poor lonely post - nobody answered.

No mechanics feel like spending their New years day thinking about my sad blown up car

Can you check what should have been at the service - whether it was a major or interim one - and whether coolant check/replacement should have been part of it. Sorry, can't be more help than that

You wouldn’t have made it down the street after the service with no coolant at all, let alone driving for a few weeks.

Head gaskets are a part that effectively wear out as they heat and cool over every use of the car. If you stop the engine before damage is done it’s a cheap enough job, but it sounds like yours seized which is often a whole world of pain to rebuild.

Have you got a record of what they did at the service?

Was it a main dealer service or an independent?

The service is a red herring. Forgetting to refresh your coolant as part of the service wouldn't cause the head gasket to blow. Draining the coolant and forgetting to refill it would but if they'd made that mistake during the service you'd have found out before now - within a few miles of leaving the garage! My money says they drained your engine coolant during the course of recharging your aircon and forgot to refill it. Your problem will be proving that but given that it failed so soon after leaving the garage I would not let it drop.

What make and model is the car? My DH suggested the same as TooGoodToBeTrue Sometimes the coolant needs draining during work on the air con system so it is conceivable that the mechanic forgot to refill the coolant afterwards, or didn't bleed the system of air properly after refilling it. Or that the radiator was damaged during the latest work and that that caused the coolant to be lost. (I think I've got that right, though I am not very mechanically minded myself.) He might be able to give you a better idea of the probabilities if you can give more details about the car. However, he also agrees that it is going to be difficult for you to prove that it was the Garage's fault unfortunately.

Yay, thanks all, sorry for the silence, I popped out.

The car is a 2011 Suzuki Grand Vitara - it was serviced at a independent garage not the main Suzuki dealership.

Interested to know that they could have drained the coolant during the aircon work.

Thanks for the info on the main service stuff, interesting to know that the car wouldn't run without coolant - which totally makes sense actually as we're in Australia and it's been HOT (and the car has run just fine in 45 degree heat).

Thanks for all, the advice the garage are calling today, and I sent a shitty email to the State Manager of the garage so he's looking into it too.