I own a 2003 Fabia Comfort 1.4 8v 5 door Hatchback. Purchased 2017 with 52k on clock and lots of paperwork. Eight months after purchase there was water loss and mayo under the rocker cover top.

Purchased a used head from Germany and had it skimmed and fitted by local garage. Everything fine for a year and then same thing happened last month.

I removed the head myself, used a new gasket and refitted head as per Haynes Manual instructions.

At present there is no water loss, but there is a build up of Mayo again.

Does this indicate that I have not fitted it properly, or could there be another problem.

I might add that this seems to be a bit of a problem for this car as the paperwork shows a new head gasket in 2014.

However, other than this issue the car has been great and has no other problems so I am reluctant to get rid of it.

Any advice would be welcome.      

I wouldn't worry about the mayo, it's caused by condensation now that the weather is cooler, my guess is that the car is used for short runs and simply doesn't spend enough time at full operating temperature to boil the condensate off.

A longer run at high speed is needed to effect a temporary cure.

Does the present gasket say TEMAC in the NS front corner?

 

As sep says, it's almost certainly just condensation which happens naturally in all IC engines (petrol/diesel + oxygen combusts to CO2 + H2O; some of the combustion products leak past the piston rings).

Not losing any coolant means not leaking via HG.

I did one head gasket on my daughters 1.4MPI and aware of the cylinder liners I tried to be very careful. Head was skimmed IIRC. Lasted 6 months and then it failed again. Scrapped it.

My personal view is that after three gaskets on yours I would not be confident of a rebuild unless liners and their seals, clearances/protrusions were done also.

The trouble is backstreet garages use junk pattern head gaskets instead of buying the TEMAC genuine part.

Thanks for the advice, the Garage used a Temac gasket (which failed) so I used a PAYEN gasket as I had heard good things about them. I suppose that I will just have to take on board your advice, keep my fingers crossed and wait and see what happens.

 

Would be a real shame to scrap it, as it has sailed past the MOT on everything else. 

Might be  good excuse to try a "SNIFF" test on the coolant system , to see if the mayo is indicative

of HG or just condensation.

Have 99% sure Head Gasket Failure. Excessive pressure in header tank, coolant loss (although slow) moisture on oil filler cap and around oil filler. I've changed thermostat (genuine Skoda) so going to Skoda parts for new gasket.  http://www.skodaparts.com/product/fabia-cylinder-head-gasket-1-4-8v-2000-2007-27388

 

Do I need Head Gasket, Exhaust and Inlet Gaskets only. Will check head for warping but if no good will probably scrap car. I know bolts are tricky to remove but anything else I should be wary of? Assume nowhere near cambelts etc. Any assistance greatly appreciated.

Thanks

25 minutes ago, coupe said:

 Assume nowhere near cambelts etc. 

 

1.4, 8 valve MPI has a timing chain. Doing the head gasket doesn't involve touching it.

Head has to be skimmed, no point doing the work otherwise.