Greetings,

I wonder if anyone can explain this:

My son has this car and took it into the Main Dealer for a routine service. It has Dealer FSH and 90,000 miles on the clock. The foreman rang him up and said that in his opinion the vehicle has a head gasket problem. Now this vehicle drives perfectly fine, does not use water but did overheat a few months ago. The water was topped up and there has been no issues since. My son did not mention this when it went in for service, but they noticed the anti-freeze staining in the engine bay.

Now this is the bit we do not understand. The dealer said rather than undertake a repair, they will provide a recon engine FOC under warranty. It will take 3 days and they will provide a courtesy car and all he pays for is "sundries" (coolant, oil and filter etc.) My son does not have an extended warranty on the vehicle and did not like to ask for warranty details but has booked it in next week.

Being an old dog, I smell a rat but can't see one. This sounds an amazing warranty deal....or am I missing something?

Regards

Pete M

PS. I should mention that no tests were undertaken to diagnose the problem and I believe a headgasket repair would cost in the region of £2000

P.S I think the Toyota variant has been covered on UKAT before, try a search