i know what you mean tiff, it would be best to try the softly softly approach first with supplier then with cometic to try and get recompense, what i am saying is that they might honour the warranty on the gasket (due to fault) but might not honour any repairs due to the failure, it will be entirely at their discression, i had a problem with a ford engine part failure and ford would not even let me open the engine, if i had taken the head off my warranty would have been void, hope you get a good outcome but its not all plainsailing. cheers nomad