We have a 1.4mpi fabia, 52 plate. The thing is I'm getting oil in with the water coolant header tank, like a scum on the top. But the oil in the engine is clean and normal no mayo no nothing. Not sure where to start looking, also have the water temp light coming on all the time. Weather that's because of scum on the sensor or what I don't know. Please help! :-)

Mostly it is a head gasket but lets see what other members say

Wife's 1.4 mpi '03 had the same but without the water temp light.

It might be the plastic clip on the thermometer has broken (a known problem) and the bits of plastic have been floating around in the coolant (a known problem) and damaged the head gasket (a known weak point).

I did a head gasket change (my first ever one) and it was fairly straight forward on this engine. around 8,000 miles later and the car seems fine. No mayo & clean pink coolant. All good.

Sounds more like someone mixed coolant types and caused the sludge, if so it'll need draining and flushing before refilling with fresh coolant, before you do this have it tested to check if it's oil in the coolant though.

The mpi HG seems to cop some flak over it's HG, it's worth remembering that they re-issued and retrofitted a new HG to early cars, that HG as far as i'm aware isn't known to be a weak spot, the problem with them was that the torque figures specified by Skoda were wrong hence why they later increased them.

Not very mechanically minded is the HG on this car not too bad though? Guidance from any books like Haines available?

As you face the car from the from have a look at the right hand corner of the engine nearest you to see if you can see the word 'Temac' on the HG.

If so, it is an updated HG.

However, so was my wife's and that had gone.

I chucked some Holts radweld plus (gold coloured bottle) in and that stopped the mayo in the oil cap. Came back today but that could just be the cold weather and short journeys. Imagine I'll need to get the headgasket done in due course though.

Water temp light (usually comes with beeps) is usually the level sender ~(2 prongs) in the expansion tank. Oily gunk can stop this working properly.

The "temac" text mentioned above is more than likely under some gunk that needs to be cleaned off to read it.

Edited 11 December, 201213 yr by anewman

Have a look at this thread (http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/223414-14-mpi-with-sludge-in-coolant/page__fromsearch__1) as there is more info in there (and pictures if I've got my link correct).

Before you go all in on the HG get the coolant checked, mixing any other type of coolant with G12 will give you brown sludge. I'm not saying it isn't the HG but a simple coolant check could save you time and money before you go any further.

Before you go all in on the HG get the coolant checked, mixing any other type of coolant with G12 will give you brown sludge. I'm not saying it isn't the HG but a simple coolant check could save you time and money before you go any further.

Agreed - rule things out through simple checks first.

Then replace the head gasket

I've got a similar problem on our 1.4 8V Fabia. It started losing a lot of coolant, I spotted a leak in the sender connection on the expansion tank so changed the tank but it was still getting through about a pint a week. There was a tar like residue in the old tank and there's loads of sludge in the oil filler cap.

I thought head gasket so took it to the local garage for a test. They pressure tested it and found nothing external and agree it could be the gasket but also said that it could be liners. If so the cost to get them to fix it would be too much given the age and condition of the car. They've put K Seal in it which has slowed the leak but as the leak is water to oil and not water to air I don't rate it's chances.

How likely is it that it's liners and not just the gasket?

Probability it is the liners is quite low IMO.

Sooner or later KB you'll be right

Personally i'm still running what I believe is the first revised Temac HG Skoda fitted during the first few years when they serviced it as I have all the paperwork/invoices from the non Skoda VAG specialist though it's possible it was done or re-done at some point other than the annual service. Either way it's a 13 year old car so I can't complain as/when the HG gives up, the parts aren't expensive and it's a reasonably straight forward/simple enough job assuming it doesn't need skimming or a full rebuild.

As for the liners I'd agree with anewman that it's less likely to be the liners.

My fabia was at around 120,000 miles when the HG gave up and it was the org HG never been changed, Car had a full service history with skoda. And tbh I got a Indy to do it for £120 + 60 for the head to be skimmed (just to be safe).

But yea start with the cheap things first a nice coolant flush as Avalon says could be crap coolant.

I used k-seal for when my HG went and it did work quite well for a few month. lower water usage back pressure problem went away etc

Mine still has the original one too but it is showing the symptoms for the head gasket and the rings too :/ ... I need an engine rebuild :peek: