Coolant Loss = Head Gasket Failure. 95000 Mile 1.9 TDi 130 VRS

[Juka]

Symptoms and Findings.

- 2004 Skoda Fabia VRS 1.9 TDI 130 (ASZ), 95,000 miles

- Coolant leak only from the top overflow hole (under the plastic flap on the expansion (coolant) bottle)

- Only leaks under high engine load (above 70mph)

- No sign of oil in the coolant bottle, no sign of water in the oil

- Coolant bottle replaced. Cap replaced

- No signs of exhaust gases in the coolant bottle when testes at the garage (i.e. sitting still)

- Water pump is ok

- Thermostat is ok

- No overheating ever (never above 90 deg)

- Heater working ok

- Big release of pressure every time the coolant cap is taken off, even when engine is cold

- All the power is there, drives well

 

 

With all the same symptoms as above - the same culprit and solution (2005. and 137.000km):

 

Coolant loss solved - leaking head gasket; as someone mentioned, "it was the biggie"... it was about ~650€ for me with other minor fixes when the head was removed.

 

One point worth mentioning is ​definitely first try to change just the bolts! My mechanic told me "who did your engine before?", and when I said I drive it from new he said "well the head bolts came off relatively easy...", the leakage was visible on the gasket but not that much - probably the bolts would've fixed it but we did this "by the book".

 

For the money I must say the car runs better than ever - it's much quieter (something with injectors busting their seats during time?), power delivery is much smoother and fuel consumption dropped (inst. fuel consumption was 0.8-0.9l/h, now at 0.6l/h!). The power delivery and consumption may be because I had a cracked air box and aluminium hose going from the air box (never noticed this before, until lately when the engine got very loud under acceleration).

 

Now that the coolant is not leaking, I notice that coolant level is stuck at max, maybe few milimeters higher when hot. Before I had very large variations in having the level very high above max or very low below min (but not leaking) - I believed this was how it's meant to be.

 

[seanw]

Symptoms and Findings.

- 2004 Skoda Fabia VRS 1.9 TDI 130 (ASZ), 95,000 miles

- Coolant leak only from the top overflow hole (under the plastic flap on the expansion (coolant) bottle)

- Only leaks under high engine load (above 70mph)

- No sign of oil in the coolant bottle, no sign of water in the oil

- Coolant bottle replaced. Cap replaced

- No signs of exhaust gases in the coolant bottle when testes at the garage (i.e. sitting still)

- Water pump is ok

- Thermostat is ok

- No overheating ever (never above 90 deg)

- Heater working ok

- Big release of pressure every time the coolant cap is taken off, even when engine is cold

- All the power is there, drives well

 

The exact same problems that I had with my 04 vrs. I changed the gasket and head bolts (pd 150 ones) and it has been perfect ever since. I didn't bother getting the head skimmed. I probably would have gotten away with just new head bolts or even giving the olds ones an extra 1/4 turn

[sammmm07]

I'm in a problem. with mine, i let a set of monkeys fix my headgasket and 3week later the head is ****ed due to them not skimming or pressure testing it, they did actually put a new belt and pump on so I'm having the repair done next week is it worth keeping the old pump and belt on?

[vindaloo]

I'm in a problem. with mine, i let a set of monkeys fix my headgasket and 3week later the head is ****** due to them not skimming or pressure testing it, they did actually put a new belt and pump on so I'm having the repair done next week is it worth keeping the old pump and belt on?

 

IMO that repair was not fit for purpose then. It should have lasted a hell of a lot longer than that. Unless they told you it was corroded/pitted at the time.

 

Pump and belt..... Labour needed anyway to strip/rebuild, so what's another £100? I assume any rebuild with another head or repaired head will cost a lot....

 

For the record, though, I think the pump and belt will be OK.... provided they don't get it all dirty and gritty removing or storing it.

[sammmm07]

IMO that repair was not fit for purpose then. It should have lasted a hell of a lot longer than that. Unless they told you it was corroded/pitted at the time.

Pump and belt..... Labour needed anyway to strip/rebuild, so what's another £100? I assume any rebuild with another head or repaired head will cost a lot....

For the record, though, I think the pump and belt will be OK.... provided they don't get it all dirty and gritty removing or storing it.

turns out my head is cracked in 2 places and the bottom block is knackered with the coolant corroding the bores so new engine is is with a new recon head....a nice £700 bill :(

[Gsmiles40]

Just thought I'd add to this thread as I found myself doing some research recently suspecting a headgasket failure on a 2004 fabia vrs. Car had covered 115,000 miles. 

 

First sign of an issue was the coolant light coming on. I let the car cool. When I removed the cap it was clear the tank had pressurised. 

 

So I suspected head gasket had started to fail. After a week of coolant loss due to pressuring causing the tank to overflow I booked it in at an independent VAG specialist. 

 

They did a chemical test and confirmed it was gasket at fault. Was due a cambelt anyway, so in some respects it was a good time to go. 

 

So labour cost for for the job came in at £450 plus vat. They reckoned the head had distorted and needed to be milled. I was keen to have the valves re-lapped while the head was off; so the head was stripped sent for machining and rebuilt using all genuine parts £££much. 

 

In doing this I read some **** on the internet about not skimming the heads on the PD engines as it'll be down on power etc. I was sceptical, but having never had any interest in ****ing about with Diesel engines, I'd not studied a PD engine in pieces. Therefore could not apply my understanding of engineering to the matter. 

 

So I bit the bullet and paid the bill at Yelverton garage. Next step for interest more than anything was a dyno run at Clive Atthowe tuning. I'll attach a picture of the graph for those interested. It made 135 HP at the flywheel. The torque figure was down about 15 lb ft, but the guy who ran it said their dyno was inaccurate on torque figures and was usually down by 15. 

 

So there you have my life findings on the subject of skimming a cylinder head on a PD130 engine as a matter of repair. No power loss to report.  Car runs well again, hopefully will get a few more miles out of it. 

[Breezy_Pete]

Runs No.1 and No.2?

That's an ASZ code rather than a BLT?

[sepulchrave]

That mythical power loss is caused by not following the correct procedure for resetting all the unit injectors stroke after the head has been stripped for skimming and then reassembled, that and tiny variations in cam timing. Non-technical muppets putting the cart before the horse again I'm afraid.

[Gsmiles40]

Ah, good to know. Hopefully this clears things up for anyone who finds themselves in my position (where you wish you'd never read the Internet!). 

 

Engine is ASZ. 

[stylo]

Hey guys, this may be a silly question but can you tell me why/how the head gasket issue did not lead to coolant mixing with the oil at any point ?

[Breezy_Pete]

If the gasket leak is between the coolant circuit and a combustion chamber, and it's only slight/at high engine loads, coolant will go out of the exhaust pipe, not into the sump.

[stylo]

Thank you for explaining Wino - I just found a pic and you've explained it perfectly for me.