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[fos605]

Hi,

Some advise please.
Have my car serviced regularly by a local mechanic, and friend.

However, about 8 months ago, had severe misfiring. Oil in plug wells result from Rocker & Manifold Gasket leak. This caused failure in Coil, leads and plugs.
8 months later Rocker & Manifold Gasket set went again!!
Coil, leads and plugs all again.
Getting very expensive.

My thoughts is the breather system blocked, which caused first problem, not fixed and still blocked causing second problem.
Normal service should clean breather system, shouldnt it. It says so on the "Good Garage Scheme" checklist.

Guy, is genuine chap, but feel this may be down to him, grateful for any advise on how I should deal with this.:-
Challenge bill poor work,
Challenge first lot of parts used (faulty only lasted 8 months 7,000 miles),
Pay up and shut up (not his fault!)

As I say he is genuine helpful, honest ....and friend!!!

Puts me in a spot.  Help.......

[Elite Pete]

The cam cover gasket leak because the breathers need cleaning and it is good practice to clean the breathers when you replace the cam cover gaskets (I clean my breathers yearly) It is also recommended on the forum to only use genuine Vauxhall gaskets and O rings

[shyboy]

First of all, the effectiveness of any work done to solve cam cover leakage and its associated problems is heavily dependent on cleaning the breather system thoroughly and properly, and then keeping it in good condition, with repeated attention as often as is necessary for your particular car. If this is skimped, recurrence of the problems is pretty well assured.
Unless you do the work yourself, it is pretty well impossible to know how good or otherwise your friend's work was. I'm sure he wouldn't object to discussing what he did with you, and he may offer some compromise to reflect his involvement. If you have to start from scratch, why not do the work yourself, perhaps with your friend's help, and buying the parts with a Trade Club card obtainable either by joining Autobahnstormers, or arranging the use of one from one of the helpful members on here. The work isn't all that difficult using the Maintenance Guides on this Forum.
Hope you sort it satisfactorily.

[Kevin Wood]

I'd say failure to clean the breathers (it may be "good practice" to do this at a service, but if it's not on the schedule, it won't get done) or using pattern gaskets was the problem.

I guess a mechanic should really have known to do the former (with any fault, you should ask yourself why it happened). The latter is something he may not have known. 90% of the time pattern parts are Ok after all. In this instance, we know they rarely last long. :-/

Kevin

[amba]

I had a very similar problem with cam cover gaskets.My friend/mechanic of some 8 years changed my cam cover gaskets about 9 months ago and within a week or so they were leaking again.He advised me the problem was "warped covers "and suggested that I bought a replacement set which he would fit FOC, so as to be sure I also bought new gaskets from Autovaux as after reading numerous threads on the forum it became clear that the covers didn,t warp it was the poor non genuine gaskets that failed.The work was again done by my mechanic with all the parts I had bought(I got a set of second hand covers from a breakers)and I gave him the maintenance guide print out on "cleaning breathers "which I printed from the forum.
Now after 9 months the gaskets are leaking again,so I intend to do the job myself this time with the help of the knowledge I have gained from the forum .The question I have asked myself is were the gaskets I bought from Autovaux,genuine or not:was the work done by mechanic up to scratch: So I think the moral of this area of the Omegas anatomy is as it does not seem too difficult to do yourself..then do it as you are atleast fairly certain it has all been done correctly and cheaper than a garage

[Entwood]

I agree with all of the above ... having had mine done 3 times by garage, I then found the forum and eventually summoned up the guts to have a go myself.

With the advice given, and printouts of the guides, it took me one and a half short days - it was damned cold when I did it and I screwed up one bit that had to be re-done - I screwed it up because I tried to cut a corner and ignored the guide - my own stupid fault.

I would ( and will be on the new beast) do the job next time without any hesitation., and I'm no mechanic ....  

[Marks DTM Calib]

I cant believe that it needs a new coil pack......it fails due to corrosion of the iron core, not due to driving plugs bathed in hot oil....

Would be surprised if the leads were toast after such a short time to.

[Kevin Wood]

I cant believe that it needs a new coil pack......it fails due to corrosion of the iron core, not due to driving plugs bathed in hot oil....

Would be surprised if the leads were toast after such a short time to.

Didn't notice that you had 2 sets of coil and plug leads too.  

Did he change these a second time because he determined them to be faulty or simply because he had changed them the time before?

Kevin

[ians]

I cant believe that it needs a new coil pack......it fails due to corrosion of the iron core, not due to driving plugs bathed in hot oil....

Would be surprised if the leads were toast after such a short time to.

Didn't notice that you had 2 sets of coil and plug leads too.  

Did he change these a second time because he determined them to be faulty or simply because he had changed them the time before?

Kevin

I can't believe that that it needs another new set of ignition components so soon.   Its almost worth changing plugs when you're in there though, esp. if using a garage, as access is much easier.

BTW Autovaux seals are Elring , not genuine, but if you ask nicely they will give you a refund (Elring refund them pretty readily they told me.)  My Elring seals lasted 8 months and I did clean the breathers as thoroughly as I could.

[amba]

Thought I read somewhere before Autovaux sold Elring gaskets,but only after I had bought them and had them fitted.Expect 9 months down the line a warranty claim would be pointles..you live and learn.Genuine Vauxhall gaskets this time,when it stops raining/snowing etc,so looking like May bank holiday job.

[albitz]

i believe that changing oil and filter every 3-4,ooo miles helps to stop breathers getting blocked so quickly,use  vx semi.

[ians]

Thought I read somewhere before Autovaux sold Elring gaskets,but only after I had bought them and had them fitted.Expect 9 months down the line a warranty claim would be pointles..you live and learn.Genuine Vauxhall gaskets this time,when it stops raining/snowing etc,so looking like May bank holiday job.

No, not at all.  This happened to me about 9 months on.  Autovaux were very helpful to their credit and refunded the money.