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Hi, our car overheated 7 weeks ago and we rang AA and had it towed to our mechanic. $3100 later, new radiator e.t.c we were told all good to go. Returning home from a family holiday our car again overheated in exactly the same way. We again rang AA for help. After we were towed to a local mechanic, we discovered a pipe had burst causing our car to overheat to the point of no return - the engine is now dead. We have now lost our car and paid a massive mechanics bill (This did include other work which needed to be done). What are our rights here? Are the mechanics liable?

Hi there,
Anytime a vehicle has overheated it is at risk of having engine damage and if it's not evident right away, there is no guarantee as to how long it will last. If a radiator was the cause of water loss, generally it would need repairs in order to get the car running again- the engine may not have shown any signs of further damage at the time. It may have been the head gasket blew shortly after this and cause excessive cooling system pressure which resulted in the weakest point which was a hose to blow and overheat the engine beyond repair. It is not possible to know how long a previously overheated engine will last, some are resilient and never give trouble and some blow gaskets easily- all a shop can test is that at the time or repair it wasn't displaying any signs of blown head gasket.