I have a 95 Hyuandai Accent and the radiator just recently blew. In the process of fixing it, we realized that the head gaskets broke aswell. It had a little over 95,000 miles on it. Should I just get a new car or try fixing it? How much would it cost me to fix it?
If you, and your associates are doing the work, it’ll just cost parts. For parts cost, check with your auto parts store, and the automotive machine shop charge for milling the head flat. For a shop to do it, call a shop and ask what they charge.
If the rest of the car is OK and the body is not rusted out, I would go for repairing. The Accent is a reasonably good, uncomplicated car and not that expensive to fix. The mileage is not excessively high, so there is plenty of life left in it.
Whether it should be repaired depends on a number of factors. If this vehicle was overheating badly enough and long enough that it blew out the head gaskets AND the radiator then the entire engine could be shaky.
Continuing to operate a vehicle with a blown head gasket allows coolant to wash the cylinder walls down (which means the cylinder walls and piston rings are toast) and coolant diluted engine oil will wash the crankshaft bearings and cam lobes out since coolant is not a lubricant.
In some severe cases hot coolant in the combustion chambers will eat valves up in the cylinder head.
I don’t know the history behind this problem and I’m just advising you that you COULD replace head gaskets and still be left with a very suspect engine at best or a junk one at worst.
I had a 1999 Hyundai Elantra Wagon. It had 235,000 miles on it when I sold it back in March. Two months before that, I found a recall thru CarFax on the Exhaust manifold because of cracks. It was replaced free of charge by the dealership (this fix also took care of the “Check Engine” light which was on all the time). I still see this car on the road from time to time. My point being, they are dependable cars and worth fixing. By the way, I was the 4th owner of the car! It didn’t leak or burn any oil.
Agree, if there is extensive engine damage, a used engine would probably be the way to go. On a car that age and quite common, there are usually enough wrecks to furnish a good used one.
New car.
I would probably try to fix it, if only because the car is worthless on trade or on the used car market. Find out how much the head gasket and rad replacement will cost, and then see what cars you can buy for that money. My bet is you can’t find anything halfway decent for what you’d pay to repair - likely under $1000 or so at a good shop.