Hi,

please help!

I was driving home from work today and my car decided to basically give a choking and jerking movement if you will and the revs suddenly stop and the speed just dropped, RAC dude could not fix it (i actuially think he made it worse) as after it was blowing white smoke! he said it could be piston rings and towed me home, now my baby car is sitting on my drive i phoned a garage and said this is what rac thought and he said my car would be better sold for parts as the job is not worth finding out the problem and would cost £1000 to fix it. can some one help and tell me are piston rings really that expensive? is there any thing else i could do to keep it ie change engine or summit so i can keep baby car on the road?

i would be most grateful to hear from you in terms of what i can do

Thanks

 

So sorry for the late reply, beebz.
White smoke from the tailpipe is coolant not piston rings, which would be blue smoke (burning oil.)
You may just have a bad head gasket which shouldn't be that bad to change. However the reason for it may be more involved... such as a warped head. It should be checked for flatness when its off, as should the deck of the engine block.
Of course, I'm just throwing stones here as I do not know where the coolant is coming from, but if coming from the tailpipe, coolant is entering the cylinder(s) and being burned, and it is likely and internal problem.

 

Are you in the UK? Depending on where you are in the UK i could quickly pop round and give you a fast honest diagnosis ? . Just like Virgin1 says it sounds like a coolant related fault .