Total disaster area.

Now the car is definitely driving the coolant into the cylinders, and the pumping it out after short trips. £170 quid with labour for the thermostat. Undrivable.

Head Gasket first thing Monday Morning. Bought an electronic version of the manual for £10 from electronicmanuals.co.uk Advice. Don't I can't install it and there is 60 step process to install, which I have never seent he like of, and I am a programmer, so I do in fact know what I am doing. No refunds is his policy. We shall see about this.

____UPDATE

While the software isn't any easier to install, I get the impression that many people have installed it successfully, and despite the site policy, he has offered me a refund, so I should have been lass harsh. Well done that man.

Paper manual it is then.

___________________

So I have buy another manual, read it then get the bits and do it. I can't afford another trip to the garage.

Advices gratefully received.

Edited 21 January, 200917 yr by AniaKovas
Update on Electronic Manuals commentary

Hi all.

So, it took me 2 days of fidgeting about to get the head off with the Haynes manual and replace the gasket.

Turns out the K-Seal never had a chance the gasket was in such a poor state. It's a monument to the engineering that the car drove at all. Now I'm a REALLY profound believer in Skoda.

So, this was listed as a a three spanner job by the Manual, and this was fair. I found many of the nuts unexpectedly "loose", but it seems that many of the torque settings are quite low, I have a torque wrench for my motorbike that only goes up to 60Nm and the thing will do for the whole car.

Getting the head bolts off was very difficult. I strongly recommend having a 1/2" drive set instead of only a 3/8" as I managed on, I had to get extra leverage for the head bolts.

CAVEAT. Getting the head off involves undoing the nuts and a bolt on the front of the head. What was not clear from the manual was how to operate the auto-tensioner to release the tension, and what bolts to undo and withdraw to move the alternator/water pump assembly so that the bracket move the 1/2 cm out the way that it needs. The answer is to undo the bolts attaching it to the engine right at the bottom, then midway up, that hard to reach and then the top bolts etc. I could photograph this if anyone really wants to know. YMMV (Your milage may vary).

Anyhow, make sure you do not assume the tappit clearances are the same, the act of taking the head off changes things a bit, and the new gasket is not compressed to the same extent.

Really, when you clear the head, it is soft; plastic or wood as the manual says, I found a plastic scourer useful, but you must use it gently, because the tolerances are low.

Having said this, it started first time, and is now sealed.

__________________

Because I jacked the car up, and the windowscreen unsealed again, as dealt with elsewhere on Briskoda, the thing leaked again into the fusebox, and made it go all funny. Dried now, and operational.

Annoying though.

Edited 28 January, 200917 yr by AniaKovas
Stupid spelling error

Hi, tried the steel seal and for the record did not work.

Whereas before hand at least I could drive the vehicle some distance before I had an issue now I'm unable to get out of our village.

Did everything it said on the Tin and now an undriveable car.

Spoke to Tech support they claim 85% hit, asked now the problem was worse if I could retry at a discounted rate they weren't interested.

I realise there is no guarantee but now my car is worse and they don't really care.

Best avoided

Sounds like Kseal does the trick,make a point of leaving to idle until the fan cuts in after plopping it in.

I use a half can per 6 months,doing 14k miles per year.

Thought I'd follow up this thread by saying that I tried K-Seal last night and now I have a fully driveable car.

The faffing around i had to do with Steel Seal:

remove thermostat, flush system, 50/50 water and ensure you use a recommended Buytol Glycol antifreeze, run car till 210 C achieved let it cool for an hour, run car 2nd time let it cool for an hour, run car 3rd time let it cool, remove coolant, remove lower radiator pipe, flush system, replace thermostat add clean coolant.

Result = did not work !!!!!

K-Seal:

Add to radiator wait 3 mins

Result = Sorted Car

Absolutley made up with this product and recommending fully.

Hello all,

Have a Felicia S reg using coolant water every 500 miles or so (level in expansion bottle drops about an inch or so).

Coolant system been checked visually for leaks and recent new thermostat means engine temp is correct and steady.

Have some mayo in oil filler cap, been told it could be condensation, but no mayo on dip stick.

Been reading posts about K seal (£9.9 a bottle) as a cure for headgasket leaks, other leaks etc, posts seem mixed.

Is it really any good?

Thanks for your time.

Read about K seal in other car forums, which were mixed and confusing, re reading all these posts in this forum overall it seems to get Postive vote!

So I'm answering my own question, sorry to waste your time, I'm new to this lark.

Check all hose clips are secure and there are no splits in the hoses first.

I have noticed in Halfords there's a new Holt's Radweld "Advanced" which claims to seal up failed headgaskets.