Saxo head gasket issue - Saxperience

Mazinsky · 5th February 2018, 14:03

Hello

I have a 1999 automatic 1.4 with about 77,000 miles.

I was told about 2000 miles ago that the head gasket was on its way out, but as the car has sentimental value I’ve been trying to keep it going.

Whenever I drive it (maybe once or twice a week on short runs around town) I always have to refill the coolant with water (there are signs of oil and general gunk in there now, but I flush out what I can when I put the water in). The oil level has been constant (about half way between the notches on the dipstick).

The car has been misfiring, chugging when idling, but otherwise has been getting us around.

Yesterday for the first time since the head gasket prognosis the oil and coolant red lights flashed intermittently then solidly. We pulled over and a little bit of white smoke was coming from the engine. We got the car recovered home but I was wondering what to do next?

Is this really it for my Saxo, or could a few tweaks or an inexpensive visit to the garage keep it going a bit longer?

Thanks for any advice!

M

crpt2008 · 18th February 2018, 17:46

Hi Mazinsky
You might want to deploy your favorite set of sockets, extensions AND torque wrench.
Check all head bolts, intake and exhaust manifolds.

Wouldn't be a first to be able to "save" an engine that way.
Although I might had, that never had one going so far has lighting up the dashboard that way.
Either case I've seen enough loose ones to state this with some confidence. Particularly on the exhaust side they tend to loose more than usual. ;-)

Mazinsky · 19th February 2018, 10:32

Hello crpt2008

Thanks very much for your reply. Unfortunately the next time I unscrewed the coolant cap very thick brown gunk oozed out. Rightly or wrongly, I decided I’d really squeezed out every last mile. It did me proud by limping the last 3 miles to the scrapyard

Manu · 19th February 2018, 11:06

clear example of car not being maintained, and owner asking how long till it dies.

Synister · 20th February 2018, 08:43

Mine does it too Manu and the oil's been replaced every 1000 miles, warmed properly, good coolant, new radiator etc.

Thing is, my head gasket is gone. I know this from a compression test. But I can't find a headgasktet to fit my engine so I'm rather stuck. I generally don't drive it hard anyway, so I'll just keep changing the oil and coolant every 1000 miles until I swap the bottom end for a VTR block.

MartinObviously · 20th February 2018, 19:18

If it had that much sentimental value, you'd simply skim the head and get a new gasket and timing belt.