i have purchased a peugeot 106 for my girlfriend yesterday at telford car auctions, when i got it home i opened the bonnet to find that there was some oil in the radiator mixed in, grey and sludgy but the oil on the dipstick was good.

anyway i emptied the radiator and flushed it through with a hose pipe and topped it back up again with antifreeze aswell and noticed the the water level keeps dropping and there are air bubbles rising up along with more oil at the spout where you fill the water up. there is no leak whatsoever so i assume this is a head gasket problem. i spent the day today and replaced the headgasket and in the block around the piston sleeves was the same grey oily sludge, but still no water in the sump.

after replacing the head gasket and everything is back together the car starts and ticks over, noisy tapets as to be expected and the problem has become worse. at this point i noticed there was no heaters either, in the way they come on but dont get hot..

so after finding theat i removed the thermostat on the engine and put the hose back on so there should be water running through constant and took it down the road and the light keeps coming on to say its overheating.

the car is an R reg 98 and has done 48000 miles and drives like its brand new and im told by a friend that he sold his for 950 on a p plate 4 months ago with 6500 miles, any ideas what its worth working? and if its worth fixing myself?

i assume the first step is a head skin and another gasket, and a thermostat. but is there anyone who reckons that i may be wasting my time?

i was hoping for the car to be ready as a suprise for the girlfriend for her 18th for her to learn to drive in.. her birthday is next friday

help me please!!

Are you sure that you've bled the coolant properly, I know the SaXo 1.6 engines needed to be pressure bled although it could be overcome by using an upturned cola bottle with the bottom cut off to create a head of water.

Sounds like an air lock to me like Stu says.

to be honest i just turned the car on and filled it up, the bubbles stopped for a while then the whole lot boiled out, im not entirely sure there is any headgasket problem now just problem with temprature.. but then again im not a mechanic

i guess im saying i dont think bleeding it will help too much for the simple reason that the engine gets far too hot and the radiator boils over badly, even without a thermostat.

also its a mystery to me why the heaters dont get hot when the water is on the brink of boiling :/

sorry i meant to ask how to bleed the system properly?

There shoud be some bleed screws around the system to let the air out, usually are on Pugs.

The heater wont be hot as there is no water in it, just a big air lock. Water isnt circulating so it boils up.

Get yourself down to Halfrauds and get a Haynes before you do any damage.

As Ross says there are bleed screws on the system but they are not at the highest point and hence the need to 'pressure' bleed.

i see, makes sense now i red up an article onnn......

Why has my peugeot 106 (n) got oil in water? - Yahoo!7 Answers

i think i may have made a problem 3 times as bad as it started :|

inexperience is not a good thing :|

the heaters are not just alot cooler they are no different to the cold setting

supposing that airlock is not the problem what else should i look for? bearing in mind at the moment there is no thermostat, and supposing the heaters still dont work?

An airlock is the problem.

Ok, thanks alot

il post up tomorow to let you know how it goes.

last question, could i have cause any problem changing the head gasket without skimming? the old gasket was quiet a mess but no clear signs of leaking around the cylinders.

thanks

As long as nothing is warped then you should be able to change the gasket without skimming.

there is a little bleed screw on the highest heater pipe just before the bulkhead. Unscrew this until water appears. Make sure coolant is topped up or you run the risk the of more air entering the system. I had the same issue once on a Saxo.

the moral to this tale is that if you do not know what you are doing... dont try fixing a problem you probably didnt have in the first place.

garages exist for a reason.

There is a bleed screw on the right hand side of the radiator assuming you have the expansion tank built into the rad on the left.

You often get lots of gunk in the rad expansion tanks and it isn't a biggy as the stuff will clean out with a decent flush and refill. The obvious and now too late point being that they can be a bugger to bleed.

Oh and PSA have been at this "fill point below heater and bleed screw not at high point" nonsense since about 1991 anyway (Source Haynes on the Citroen ZX [and it is correct]).