Hi,

The coolant level on my Fabia keeps dropping below the minimum and the warning light comes on. I have been topping it up with water.

I took it to my non Skoda local garage just to ask their opinion and after a very quick look he thought he could see water in the oil (he removed the cap on the engine - when he checked the oil level it was OK) and said it looks like the head gasket is going.

I am using the car as part-exchage with my Skoda garage soon so don't want to take it them and, of course, don't want to spend any money on it.

This problem had happened before and it has been sorted without great expense when I took the car for a service. I never asked what they did but it makes me think maybe it is not the head gasket but could be just this issue recurring - a simple leak perhaps?

Any thoughts on this issue would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Matthew.

I think you have answered your own question there , Its one or the other, leak or HG, If water is getting into your oil then you will have oil like mayonnaise, If it is getting into your compression chamber you may have a reduction in compression and/or a contamination of your water with exhaust gasses.

You really need to get a compression test carried out, and a snort test on the coolant and that'll confirm if you dont have the mayonnaise.

If you are trading it in then you could just keep topping up in the meantime, or trying one of those black magic potion headgasket repairers, but remembering you are passing on the problem to the next buyer if your conscience can take it

Many thanks for that BigW. My brother was maybe going to buy the car but I have warned him off! However, I am getting a new Roomster and the Skoda garage offered me very little for my Fabia and nothing off the price of the Roomster apart from the 'VAT-free' offer. So I don't feel too bad about passing it on to a Skoda garage who I am sure can cope with it...

BTW, the oil looked like oil when checking the level with the stick thing but did look a bit mayonnaisey when he took the cap on the engine off (you can tell I know a lot about these things).

Cheers,

Matthew.

Many thanks for that BigW. My brother was maybe going to buy the car but I have warned him off! However, I am getting a new Roomster and the Skoda garage offered me very little for my Fabia and nothing off the price of the Roomster apart from the 'VAT-free' offer. So I don't feel too bad about passing it on to a Skoda garage who I am sure can cope with it...

BTW, the oil looked like oil when checking the level with the stick thing but did look a bit mayonnaisey when he took the cap on the engine off (you can tell I know a lot about these things).

Cheers,

Matthew.

I was told by other members and a couple of parts shops that it could be just condensation build up in the engine which happens more if only used for short journeys. clean off the mayonnaise then take for long drive and see if its back. I had similar probs to you, It turned out to be the water pump gasket. I still get mayo but don't worry about it water levels are fine now.<br>

Edited 31 May, 201016 yr by The Worm

Thanks for that. Need to take the car for an MOT soon so will speak to the garage about it and see what they say.

Cheers,

Matti.

It may not be a cylinder head gasket leak but an oil cooler which is far cheaper to fix .Ask your MOT garage to "sniff" the coolant expansion tank for combustion gasses . They will have the equipment to do this.This will tell you whether a leak exists between the cylinders and the coolant .