I'm really after a second opinion or two here - I've had suspicions of a possible intermittent head gasket issue for a while now, and having noticed a significant drop in coolant level over the last 3 weeks (since I last topped it up) I think it's time to do something about it pretty soon. As it's my first experience with a VW engine I'd like to make sure it's definitely the engine, and not my expectations, at fault before taking the plunge. Especially since 'my' garage and half my tools are 100-odd miles of motorway away - I don't fancy another sudden major blowup like my 120L, particularly with an alloy-headed engine this time (not to mention it'd just be disappointing compared to the sight of 11 litres of coolant hitting a hot engine block in the middle of the M4 )

I know it's been cold and I've been mainly doing short trips lately - my commute is only 5 and a half miles each way, but long enough for the engine to reach normal temperature before I arrive - but am I right in thinking this is somewhat worse than I should expect even in that situation?

And after a 45-mile drive at mostly A-road speeds it had only half cleared, too.

Also, it shouldn't almost constantly chuck out steam like this even at normal running temperatures, surely?

On top of it all I've now confirmed signs of an external leak at no.4 end - the thermostat housing has obviously been leaky at some point before I got it and may still be, but I'm fairly sure some of it has been seeping out between the block and the head as well. I've also noticed an occasional slight whiff of hot coolant followed by a slightly more burning smell whilst driving, too, which I guess is some leaking out and boiling off.

I can't help thinking the axle stand/downpipe incident which cracked the exhaust manifold has contributed to, if not caused, the problem - is it possible this could have damaged the head too? Or is it more likely (as I'm hoping) that it's simply unseated it slightly and encouraged a gasket failure to develop? Any opinions and experience in this area would be most welcome.

On a related note, what's the consensus on replacing the bolts when taking the head off? I know Skoda don't specify it but does anyone think it might be worthwhile, or indeed advisable in this case? I'd quite like to take the opportunity to replace the valve stem oil seals for peace of mind, but then I also partly don't want to take it off at all for fear of seeing the condition the bores and rings might be in. :S

I'm pretty sure head bolts are almost always stretch bolts and need replacing to pinch down, don't quote me on that as I might be wrong but still.. Every car that I've looked at the HG on in the past has always had new head bolts with the kit, for the sake of £'s you might as well, last thing you want to do is change it again.

The first picture shows a fair bit of mayo, typical of a car with failing head gasket. 5 miles should be more than enough time to get rid of this as the car should be well up to temperature by then. If you aren't sure take it for a long run (if you dare) lol A small amount can be considered normal, but that is one hell of a lot of mayo

The steam though, I wouldn't massively worry, particularly with the low temperatures as the exhaust gas temperatures are higher than outside temperature so will cause a bit of steam, does the steam sit really low and 'heavy' to the ground or is it whispy and sort of floats away and disappears, if its the latter then it's fine.

I'd definitely get it pressure tested though to confirm.

having that mayo under the oil filler cap doesn't necessarily mean you have a failed head gasket, sometimes it just happens when condensation forms under there.

the cylinder head bolts are deffo a stretch-type and need to be replaced every time..

i would investigate the water leak from the stat housing etc before taking the plunge on the head gasket, these engines DON'T suffer from gasket failures that often unless they've been cooked up pretty hot.. the great axle stand incident of 2010 is unlikely to have busted anything tbh

Thanks chaps. My main concern is that I know nothing about the history of this engine other than the terrible unmaintained state it turned out to be in when I got it. What worries me is that compared to the 'normal' mayo I was typically getting before I replaced the broken thermostat, this is a hell of a lot more (I found some up the top of the crankcase breather, too), and that there were still traces left after a ~90 mile round trip when it wasn't particularly cold or wet. I'll step down from panic stations for now though, replace the thermostat housing seal and keep a very close eye on things.

When I figure out where my spark plug socket's got to I'll check the compression and see if it's worth taking the head off to do the rings anyway - the oil consumption's settled down a fair bit from what it was but still seems high to me.

i had mayo under my filler cap this morning on mine, drove 40 odd miles and it was still there.. those engines always drink a lot of oil due to the crankcase breather pod being too low on the back of the block..

If it's any comfort, SMWBO's 1.4 Fabia has been run dry of coolant three times, and the HG is still fine (first time I twisted the temp sensor O-ring putting a new sensor in, so all the coolant leaked out; second time was when the rad sprang a leak; third time was when the K-Seal put in to tide the car over until we could get it into the garage for a new rad finally gave up the ghost.)

Fortunately, it was F... cold each time the leak happened, but everything seems to have been OK gasket-wise. Bit of an aside, the the K-Seal 'to tide us over' ended up holding the rad together for four or five months as one thing after another meant I kept forgetting to book it in...

When mine did this, I wiped it clean to get an accurate idea of what is going on. Wipe it, take it for a blast, then see what it does.

Yeah, I can't say i'd expect it to clear quickly, if at all, so wipe it and then see what happens after. I've done oil changes before on seriously mayo-ed up engines that seemed to have HGF and they were fine after... not many, but it has happened.

Hmm, I'm starting to agree it's probably minor issues blown up by paranoia on my part. The price I pay for buying a poor little abused and neglected car on the cheap, I guess.

Still, might call the insurers to see what difference an AFH would make, just in case it does let go...

^^ :yes:

do it....

the trouble with the 1.6 is there is no breather in the head so any condensation (as steam) rises up there and has no way out, its a crap design basically, I fitted a pipe union to my cambox and ran a breather from there to a T in the origional breather and its fixed most of my mayo probs (the car only does 3 miles each way to work)

Very good point Jim, I hadn't considered that at all. I don't fancy attacking my rocker cover with only a cordless drill to hand though, so I'll have to keep an eye out for the breather/filler that supposedly exists on a few smaller Mk4 Golfs and Lupos, which looks like it may fit under the bonnet (unlike the Octavia one you mentioned in Tom's thread a while back)

yes funny that I saw one on a 16v polo the other day and meant to get the part no off it, it only has an 8mm outlet so wouldn't be too difficult to find the correct size tee for the breather pipe

ah yes, the breather mod.. i've got one on order at tps at the moment.. post up a pic of it when i go to collect it

An update on this one for future reference: you guys were correct, thankfully. Once the outside temperatures started going below zero, starting from cold resulted in a visible trickle running down the back of the thermostat housing which more or less stopped once warmed up. Now it's a bit warmer again (and having nipped up the mounting bolts a teensy bit tighter) the leakage seems to have gone back to negligible, so chances are it's nothing worse than worn-out O-rings - a pair of nice new expensive (£2.50 each!) genuine Skoda ones awaits

In fact far from head gasket failure, it seems I have the opposite problem - finally got the chance to compression test it this afternoon and the readings were approximately 11.5 - 15.2 - 12 - 12.3 bar, so it looks like at least number 2 has suffered from all the oil it was burning (and also gives a pretty big hint as to what I thought sounds like an occasional slight knock on one cylinder at idle). It's nice to be reassured that the only reason to take the head off is to clean it, but not so good that I managed to kill the battery doing so, just before a bank holiday weekend too. Bugger. At least I wasn't planning on going anywhere for a few days...

apologies, forgot to update this

part number 036115302N and it was about £15