multiple problems

[hetster]

ok where to begin lol
bought this car as a cheap run around as my last car decided to bend its valves.

anyway i love the car which is a 1999 saxo vtr. now i dont know if these are real problems or normal for saxo's. i have done some reading on the forums and it seems a lot of my problems are not really problems and more quirks for the saxo range so i will list all the faults i know and then the much more knowledgable ones on here can hopefully put it all together and work out what and if anything is wrong.

1. high temps. the temperature seems to run fairly high normaly around the 3/5 mark all the time. after reading the forums i decided that its normal for it to run hot so did some testing and the fan does come on after approx the 3/4 mark but on my way home last night (good mile uphill in 4th) the temp gauge was right on and ever so slightly over the last white notch although the light never came on and then dropped to 3/4 again.

2. cold starting. on cold start i get a puff of white smoke for the first 1 min of engine warm up that has a slightly enginy smell (if you know what i mean. not petrol and not oil but a kind of mixture of both. the smell you get when you open a hot bonnet). this is accompanied by around 10 seconds of what seems to be firing with 1 cylinder missing but is very short lived and has no other effect after. it also has pretty rough idle but isnt really bad, it tends to be pretty high and then goes down to normal. it starts life on key turn at about 14,000 and drops to 9,000 after a good 15 mins. this seems as though the choke is on for way too long as it should drop much before then. although it never cuts out the idle is never smooth it fluctuates albeit every so slightly. almost to the point of not noticing.

3. bad fuel consumption. i dont know how bad this is becuase my next to last car was an audi diesel which was great on fuel and i then bought a 1.1 clio which apparently wasnt great on fuel either so i dont have much to gauge it on but i get approx 40 - 50 miles per £10 at £1.32 per litre. which i am assuming is either normal for a 1.6 vtr at todays petrol prices or as i suspect quite high

after reading the forums carefully i think i may have one / all / some of the following lol

1. failing idle control valve ( i searched for it but cannot find it from the many guides here as it must be in a different place on the mk1 vtr) which would explain the poor idle and bad fuel consumption
2. failing lambda sensor. this again would explain the rough idle and high fuel consumption
3. cracked / leaking downpipe gasket. although i cant see any cracks and hear any leaks there does seem to a slight blowing noise at high revs.
4. damaged valve seals. this would explain the smoke on start up and the missing cylinder on start up for 10 seconds.

any further help or someone who can pieve the many different probs to 1 big 1 i would be grateful. i didnt pay a lot for the car (£400 with full service history and only 68k miles garunteed with lots of bills etc for parts / labor / services also must be worth pointing out that in the many bills for parts i found none had lambda sensors or idle control valves. the last service did include new ht leads though). the car fells great to drive

[hetster]

well i got a feeling its the head gasket.
first 2 weeks it seemed fine but on the motorway home it started to overheat ever so slightly. light kept dipping off and on so i decided to bleed the radiator in case of any air trapped in it. levels didnt seem to low and there was no air trapped.
i then removed the oil filler cap and noticed a bit of creamy stuff in there which i assume is head gasket. seems like i may have been ripped off
strange thing is it drives like a dream. it still has plenty of pull and doesnt limp and the engine management light isnt on (does come on ignition). dont think i can afford to have the head gasket done so will probably just sell it on.

on a side note can a head gasket go slowly or is it all or nothing

[DreamEater]

Head gasket can go very slowly, my Rover 400 took around 1000 miles before it became undriveable!

A headgasket set will cost around £40, also replace the cambelt, waterpump and thermostat at the same time for piece of mind. All in all it'll take you around 5 hours to do, it's quite a simple job.