My car is going for coolant pressure check tomo.

Ive been losing small amounts of coolant the past 2 weeks.

I kept checking every day to see if any oil in header tank (none)

Water in oil (none).

Then on sunday went for day out 4hrs round trip checked coolant before setting off.

Got home and coolant had dropped below min mark by quite an amount.so waited until engine was cold checked to see if had gone up. It had but not by much.

Ive left the car all week as dont want to cause any further damage.

I didnt want to spend any money on new header tank plus cap.or even just new cap

Just incase its few quid down the line.

Question is how much will the pressure test cost to start with.

Then if its failing gasket.head problem.

How much should a rough quote be to fix

Btw ive only just had a month ago timing belt and waterpump replaced.

The garage at time said pump had leaked water!!!. And that gasket looked fine.

Hi,

 

Some garages do talk rubbish... Your head gasket might "look fine" as in, no outside leakage, but it's probably leaking between a waterway and cylinder, therefore the oil looks OK, the water looks OK, but the level drops as water is slowly getting lost into the cylinder, probably not noticeable until the engine is hot at an early stage. Get the cylinder compression checked as well, if one is much different to the others, there will be the problem. If this is the problem, combustion gases should be detectable in the header tank also.

Mine started like this and within a week/two there was small amounts of mayo under the oil filler cap. However the header tank was completely filled with Crap. Which was the most annoying thing as I'd only replaced the header tank days before this.

I'm having a total nightmare with mine atm though. Head gasket sorted but the cars got a horrible judder, misfire, knocking noise and it sound like my turbos about to eat itself. You fix one thing ...........grrrrrr

Hi,

Some garages do talk rubbish... Your head gasket might "look fine" as in, no outside leakage, but it's probably leaking between a waterway and cylinder, therefore the oil looks OK, the water looks OK, but the level drops as water is slowly getting lost into the cylinder, probably not noticeable until the engine is hot at an early stage. Get the cylinder compression checked as well, if one is much different to the others, there will be the problem. If this is the problem, combustion gases should be detectable in the header tank also.

Yeah im gona get all tests done.before deciding whether or not to carry on with this car.

Mine started like this and within a week/two there was small amounts of mayo under the oil filler cap. However the header tank was completely filled with Crap. Which was the most annoying thing as I'd only replaced the header tank days before this.

I'm having a total nightmare with mine atm though. Head gasket sorted but the cars got a horrible judder, misfire, knocking noise and it sound like my turbos about to eat itself. You fix one thing ...........grrrrrr

I dont wana be spending lots on it now. Its got mot next week.and road tax too.

Obviously they have to be done.

Car has only done 112k which is nothing.car is running spot on and smooth.

It was £1200car.but after the usual maintenance and full servicing this car could end up being 2000k car.

Ok i know the history of car compared to if i cut my losses and get bigger family car which i wont know anything about

Like you say 1thing after another. it drives you mad

Pressure test done. And it held pressure well for good 10mins. Then saw small hairline crack in expansion tank.

So thankfully just need new tank and cap 10min job.

Few!

Excellent news, it's always nice when something potentially expensive and time consuming turns out to be far more trivial

On 14/08/2015 at 00:53, favguy said:

Hi,

 

Some garages do talk rubbish... Your head gasket might "look fine" as in, no outside leakage, but it's probably leaking between a waterway and cylinder, therefore the oil looks OK, the water looks OK, but the level drops as water is slowly getting lost into the cylinder, probably not noticeable until the engine is hot at an early stage. Get the cylinder compression checked as well, if one is much different to the others, there will be the problem. If this is the problem, combustion gases should be detectable in the header tank also.

I have a ridiculous problem like this. People in the know have often said they've not come across head gasket problems on 2.0 TD or only rarely.

 

This is what happens to my 2.0 TDI ever since I had a radiator replaced. These symptoms are after I had a head gasket, skimmed head and a new EGR cooler, although it was worse before I fixed those,

 

1. Temperature will rise when I drive it fast
2. The heater doesn't blow hot air
3. Oil is fine
4. Car drives fine.
5. Sometimes the coolant will be compresses in the engine and will come back into the reservoir tank when I release the cap.

6. Checking coolant after engine warmed up, it appears very high.

7. Driving round local area at slower speeds I don't suddenly suffer coolant red light, but a hard run over ten or more miles may do so.

8. After car cools overnight, occasionally the coolant will be below minimum mark in the morning.

Is it possible that I could have blown the Head Gasket or is it the water pump?

5 minutes ago, OctaviaVRS2 said:

I have a ridiculous problem like this. People in the know have often said they've not come across head gasket problems on 2.0 TD or only rarely.

 

This is what happens to my 2.0 TDI ever since I had a radiator replaced. These symptoms are after I had a head gasket, skimmed head and a new EGR cooler, although it was worse before I fixed those,

 

1. Temperature will rise when I drive it fast
2. The heater doesn't blow hot air
3. Oil is fine
4. Car drives fine.
5. Sometimes the coolant will be compresses in the engine and will come back into the reservoir tank when I release the cap.

6. Checking coolant after engine warmed up, it appears very high.

7. Driving round local area at slower speeds I don't suddenly suffer coolant red light, but a hard run over ten or more miles may do so.

8. After car cools overnight, occasionally the coolant will be below minimum mark in the morning.

Is it possible that I could have blown the Head Gasket or is it the water pump?

 

Classic head lift, you need to redo the HG with new bolts.

 

Alternatively the head was not pressure tested when it was skimmed and it's cracked.

Edited 16 November, 20214 yr by sepulchrave

20 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

Classic head lift, you need to redo the HG with new bolts.

 

Alternatively the head was not pressure tested when it was skimmed and it's cracked.

 

That's horrifying. I wonder if its better now to just buy a new head because its skimmed to the limit now?

8 minutes ago, OctaviaVRS2 said:

 

That's horrifying. I wonder if its better now to just buy a new head because its skimmed to the limit now?

 

Probably, it will save time faffing about.

As a matter of interest how does head lift occur in the first place? Everything I used was new and highest quality.

42 minutes ago, OctaviaVRS2 said:

As a matter of interest how does head lift occur in the first place? Everything I used was new and highest quality.

 

It usually occurs in engines where the stretch bolts are too weak or not tightened properly, the old PD130 is a very good example, head lift is an extremely common occurence with them when they're driven enthusiastically.

 

Edit: If your car is a petrol turbo then it can't be head lift, your head must be cracked.

Edited 16 November, 20214 yr by sepulchrave