Headgasket leaking, please, please help! I feel horrible..

[bimmer253]

I'm not sure how many of you know or remember, but i sold my car about a month ago. I was sad to see it go, but the pain was eased by a brand new toyota tundra. Well anyways, the new owner and i have talked alot, and he has been a great guy to work with, and all in all the auction(on ebay) and sale of the car has been a great experience for both of us. This is where i get to the problem. I just recieved an e-mail from him, saying that he noticed a leak under the car, took it to a shop, and they told him that the head gasket is leaking coolant into the oil! I had no idea, or saw any signs of this type of problem, and now i just feel absolutely horrible that this guy has to go through with this after only owning the car for about a week now! I want to do anything i can to try and help him out, so please any advice you guys have, any hints, ideas anything i can pass on to him would greatly be appreciated! I know i didn't do anything wrong, but i just feel so bad about this, so please help in any way!

[632 Regal]

I'm not sure how many of you know or remember, but i sold my car about a month ago. I was sad to see it go, but the pain was eased by a brand new toyota tundra. Well anyways, the new owner and i have talked alot, and he has been a great guy to work with, and all in all the auction(on ebay) and sale of the car has been a great experience for both of us. This is where i get to the problem. I just recieved an e-mail from him, saying that he noticed a leak under the car, took it to a shop, and they told him that the head gasket is leaking coolant into the oil! I had no idea, or saw any signs of this type of problem, and now i just feel absolutely horrible that this guy has to go through with this after only owning the car for about a week now! I want to do anything i can to try and help him out, so please any advice you guys have, any hints, ideas anything i can pass on to him would greatly be appreciated! I know i didn't do anything wrong, but i just feel so bad about this, so please help in any way!

[dave b]

I had a similar situation - when my parents sold my first car (a 1988 Ford Taurus), they went through a litany of problems and helped the new owner out by paying for some of the repairs. After a while, the guy kept showing up and they had to draw the line somewhere.

Now, as an owner of a car that I bought from someone else (a good friend, in fact), I have seen the situation from the other side. I also talked with him frequently after I bought the car. Once, I told him about a repair that I had to have done. According to him, the repair had been done by his shop. I investigated on my end, he investigated on his end. The result was that his shop had pulled a fast one, and he got them to give me the $$$ for my repair.

I think you approach it like this: if you sold him the car in what you knew was good working order, then you can't be expected to bear any responsibility. I saw all the repair bills when I bought my car, so I knew it could get expensive if I had someone else do the repairs. If I were you, I would give him as much help as I could as to the symptoms; in fact, refer him to this board as a good resource. Walk him through the repairs until he gets the hang of it. Remember, ANYTHING you do is above and beyond what most other sellers would do. It's a used car and things go wrong. It's perfect one day, and then the next, there's a puddle of something on the ground under your car...


I hope that helps and good luck,