Well in law, the advice that I was given was that you have to give them the opportunity to rectify it otherwise you do have the option to have it repaired elsewhere and then claim it back from them.
Of course, just like my head situation, the issue isn't clear cut and could end up very awkward.
In brief, my head gasket went, had it done by the local chap £450. First long journey noticed that the expansion tank was still pressurising etc.
Short story is that the local hadn't checked for cracks and claimed that if it was the head gasket then he'd change that.
I sourced a replacement which he fitted and claimed was bad, leaky valves. His test was to pour water in through the ports, sure enough there were drops coming in but then there was in my old head which had done 121k miles.
His stance was that the reason the engine didn't start was that there was no compression as in 0 on 3 cylinders and only 50psi on another. Now I've come across low compression but unless there's actually a stuck valve, I can't accept 0 psi is a result of an old valve even when the old head (that worked) could be demonstrated to perform his leak test in an identical way.
In the end, my wife (stressfully) towed me 20 miles to the nearest Saab dealer. (HINT: If you have a tow rope, junk it and buy a tow pole with relief spring such as
http://www.toolspot.co.uk/product/2-ton-ve...h-spring-damper if you want to keep your wife/girlfriend!)
They put the head on and did the timing chain too (£2000 total thanks very much).
I could have tried to claim the £450 off the first chap but to be honest although I was angry and fired up, in the end we were moving house and all sorts of other things were a priority such that I never pursued it. I could easily have spent more time and money pursuing it than it cost in the first place.
Good luck!
David.
