My much loved 2016 2.0L diesel Yeti has been diagnosed with head gasket failure after the coolant warning going off on many occasions. Always stopped driving when it happened (never had white smoke etc) and took it to my trusted local mechanic (TLM) who tried replacing secondary coolant pump, then a thermostat & housing, finally did a sniff test confirming gasket failure. He can't do the job himself and asked another indy garage who wouldn't take it on; I asked another trusted indy who wouldn't touch it either & suggested I go to dealership which I then did. They initially didn't think it could possibly be the HG - said it hadn't ever been found in that engine, in their mechanics 20+ year experience! - but they did the full inspection and found same thing. Quoted £2k "best case scenario" and £5400+ "worst case" . I've taken the car away from them and asked another recommended indy to give their verdict/price, but after 3 days am still waiting for them to have time to look at it. I'm sure if they want the job the price will be considerably lower than the dealership - but question is, should I go ahead with the repair, and expect the car to run as before once mended? Or cut my losses? Think I can get only c£2k for scrap value which is gutting.  It's done 97k miles but a diesel so that's not an issue. Taxi driver tonight said he'd had a HG repair once but car had never run the same after. Has anyone had any experience with this?

I'd be trying to bypass the EGR cooler to rule that out before anything else.

Hi

 

Head gaskets rarely fail for no reason.  After 97K you can rule out misassembly.  Gross overheating that warps the cylinder head is about the only possibility, but you would have been aware of that happening.  As suggested above, the EGR cooler is a potential route for exhaust gases to enter the cooling system (e.g. corrosion pinhole from inside pipe into water jacket) and show up on a sniff test.

 

Any sign of water in oil or oil in water ?

 

Any sign of low compression ?  A garage should be able to remove injectors and do a leakdown test on each cylinder.

 

Given the costs involved, I would want to be pretty certain of a firm diagnosis.

The only symptoms (apart from coolant alarm & topups needed) have been a smell (but my trusted local mechanic replaced a thermostat & housing, thought that was the cause and said the smell would linger a couple of weeks) and I noticed that instead of filling up after 6 days (I do c 90 miles per day commuting) it was becoming more like 5.5 days and was wondering if I'd been putting in inferior diesel! No smoke & temp dial never tipped over 90. Maybe the regen thing happening after parking up a few times? Car now sitting at the latest garage I took it to other side of town, so I can't check oilcap. One other thing I reported to the TLM ages ago - a VERY faint crackling noise on inserting the key in ignition before starting up. Sounds like a faint breeze through dry leaves (I assume electrical) but he couldn't find anything to account for that. And a lamp fail warning light has gone off on three occasions when no lamp fail to be found -  and then it went out again. I'd been wondering if i need a new battery, as it's never been replaced in the 6 years I've had it so I imagine it's the original from 2016.

Edited 6 July, 20241 yr by Edinyeti
Thought of more stuff!

Update! Second indy garage did their own investigation, found a badly clogged up coolant pipe; flushed it out (twice) fitted a new hose, checked it over and charged me £264 - no mention of a head gasket repair needed at all!  and so far - touch wood - it's driving well and no coolant warning. There is still a bit of a smell, which is the only worrying symptom...but I've now done c 90 miles in it with no problem, so feeling hopeful. Feel pretty annoyed at the dealership for not finding the clogged pipe - and of course for telling me I needed a head gasket & quite possibly new cylinder head - IF all continues to be fine I will get in touch with them to ask for my £138 back. I assume that if I'd taken their word for it and let them start the work, I would be in for a £2000 bill (and they would probably not have found that blockage even then?!). Not good, West End Skoda Edinburgh. 

Further update…

Unfortunately the blockage diagnosis and repair didn’t solve the problem. It came back and smell was awful, so I decided to take the yeti to a VAG garage recommended by neighbours. They diagnosed & replaced the EGR valve - costly but seemed very plausible, they were confident and I was hopeful. Unfortunately the smell kept on coming and a month later the coolant warning came on again…then a screeching noise on acceleration….! aargh… So back to VAG garage who so far say there’s a DPF problem and they need to strip the engine to find out more. Now wishing I’d traded in 6 months ago, much as I love the car. Any ideas?