Hi there, I've just bought a fabia for the wife 2001 1.4 16v. After a week there area lot of little niggles which you would expect with this age of car, there appears to be one major one though. I'm pretty sure the head gasket has gone, gunge in the coolant expansion tank and emulsified stuff on the underside of the oil cap. The coolant temperature warning gauge has been flashing intermittently since she got the car last week but she told me it went off after a while. I'd just put this down to the extreme cold weather as I'd checked the water and oil cap when she bought it. Today she said there was the orange engine warning light flashing after a while. The dealer we bought it from has been really good so far; putting the car through an MOT even though it had 5 months still valid, he sorted all the repairs including a new spring. The wife phoned him today and he has arranged to have it looked at next week.

The two questions I have are; If he fails to get it sorted how much would it cost (ball park) to get the head gasket changed from a local garage? If I have to do it myself, does the cambelt have to be removed on this type of engine or is it just a case of strip the head clean it up and replace with new gasket?

16v has cam belt, suggest this is changed at the same time as only extra cost will be parts.

Coolant dash warning is quite common, it is a level sensor in the expansion tank and these fail requiring replacement of the header tank, or oil contamination can also muck them up.

Consider that gunge under oil cap may be normal, i.e. current weather conditions + short trips. Gungey stuff in coolant may be due to incompatible coolants being mixed with the original one.

Edited 31 December, 201015 yr by anewman