blown head gasket?
 

hi all,

i am new to this forum and i welcome any and all suggestions. i have a 2005 mini cooper s that i bought new in the fall of '04. it has a little over 54,000 miles on it. i recently moved from pennsylvania to louisiana and took my mini with me.

i must say that in the 7 years i've owned this car, this is the first real problem i've had with it and i'm not sure if it's my fault or not... but anyway...

i live about an hour outside of new orleans. one night i was coming home from the nola airport when i noticed it was overheating. i had no where to pull over so i drove on at low speed, but i drove on none-the-less... for about 30 miles.

as soon as i could, the next day, i took it to a repair shop. i had the thermostat changed and everything seemed good for about 4 days, but it started overheating again. i took it back to the shop and this time they put in a new water pump. there was no leak. between these two visits and the cost of renting a car for a week, i've spent approximately $1000. $225 for a week's car rental, $500 (parts & labor) for the water pump replacement, $240 (parts & labor) for thermostat and housing replacement.

i was keeping my fingers crossed that i hadn't blown the head gasket from overheating, but i just took my car out again and it overheated again. my car does not sound any different and it does not seem to have lost any power, yet a blown head gasket is the diagnosis that i am most commonly given.

so now i'm $1000 in the hole and my car still doesn't work. does my problem sound like a blown head gasket to anyone out there? if so, how much would a typical head gasket job cost? should i have it done at a mini dealer? or would i be better trading it in for a new car?

inquiring minds want to know...

thanks in advance,
byron

Have they run a compression test ?

the mechanic did a test, but i don't know if it included a compression test.

i think i will have it towed to the nearest mini dealer (45 miles away) and have them run a diagnosis through one of their diagnostic machines. my reluctance is just that dealers can be really super expensive and the dealer in baton rouge does not have a good reputation for service.