Smoking?

I had the headgasket and belt etc changed on 10 March by some one who will remain anonymous for now.

Car, which was all OK, now looses water and blows white smoke even when hot.  (Not a lot but enough to be seen.)

Does this indicate that Mr Bodge and Scarper replaced a perfectly serviceable original gasket with one that lasted less than a week? 
I cannot see any evidence of leaks anywhere else.  

Do you have hesitation when starting the car in the morning after stood unused overnight?

I had not noticed.  I'll give it a try in the morning as I haven't run it for a few days.  What do you define as "hesitation"?  A few seconds churning?  Starts on a few cylinders then 4th chimes in?  

VinceR wrote:

I had not noticed.  I'll give it a try in the morning as I haven't run it for a few days.  What do you define as "hesitation"?  A few seconds churning?  Starts on a few cylinders then 4th chimes in?  

If you have IMG leaking coolant inside your cylinder/s, which you might assume since you have white smoke from the exhaust, then overnight you might/will have water buildup in cylinders 1 and/or 4 thus preventing your engine to start immediately, but it will take few moments to start it up.

I'm really sorry you are going through this Vince.
It's not good when you have just paid to have the very thing you dreaded happening replaced.
Water loss and white smoke are the last things you want to see.
Call them and get them to come back and give their verdict , they owe you that.

Let them know you are active on the forum and that we are eagerly awaiting to hear of their following this up with you.

Roverlike - Started up this afternoon this afternoon without hesitation and settled to a fast idle.  No smoke. Strange.

Brian - Thanks.  Precisely what I did not want or expect.  Arranged for next visit 3rd May.   Another month wasted!

Nan -  I have implied the same.  Along the lines of "I'm a member of a number of forums and noone else has experience of immediate HG failure.  They are interested." 

But is it? Smoke (steam?) vanished for now.  I shall rag it for a week and see how much coolant disappears. Perhaps it's OK just ticking over in the garage and needs a bit of work to leak?  At least both alarms work.  That's a plus.   
As an additional bugger charged me for the parts I supplied!!  

  

If its only really being started in the garage it would take a while for the exhaust to clear of vapour/condensation and fingers crossed the leak just may be the air releasing in the header tank making it look like the level is dropping.
Give it a good run out staying closish to home but enough to see what the temp gauge is doing.
Fingers crossed Vince.

Just after "Bodge and Scarper" had left I topped it up. Then again a few days later.?
Did a 40 mile trip to Thame and back.  Temp stayed rock steady, gear change much improved Hurrah!
BUT, checking next day, showed the drop in the expansion tank level.  About half a cup? That's when I became suspicious. This PLUS the engine light coming on. 
Although it starts on the button  and immediately settles to an 1100 cold idle.  

Have you been topping it up daily or just that one time?
Any air in the system after initial filling will release in to the header tank as it passes through and show a level drop. Are the airing points full of water....I am just hoping it is settling down after the job done and the water vapour is because the exhaust never gets warm in the garage starts.
There could also be a slight water leak from one of the hoses that they disconnected. Anything to get away from the HG being at fault!

Does anyone have any intel about the warning light? Is it triggered only by the difference in O2 signals?

generous_dad wrote:

Does anyone have any intel about the warning light? Is it triggered only by the difference in O2 signals?

If you are asking about MIL/engine light, that light will come up everytime engine encounter any type of error code. To be able to see what error code came up, you need to read it with diagnostic equipment. List of possible error codes is prety long and mentioned difference in O2 signals is just one on that long list of codes. Each code point to different type of mismatch or error encountered within engine ECU driving the engine.