Hello all
Could any of you buffs please give me as many reasons as possible to convince my main dealer that HE should pay for the head gasket blowing after only 5 weeks! I am no mechanic but i need to have as many reaons as possible to hit him with so that he can't balme me... I was driving along and then the engine became "clunky" , smoke coming out exhaust BUT NO INDICATION OF OVER HEATING!!!!
What could have caused it? Could it have been soemthing I did? is it reasonable that a car should do this after only five week driving? HELP!!!!!!!!!
How quickly can an engine overheat and blow the head gasket?
The car is a 1.9 TD Xantia(1995)
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
colm
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Oh dear.
MG-Rover Questions? forums.mg-rover.org/
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Anything more to add than "oh dear!" .... or is it that bad???!!!???
The guy from whom I bought this car is a maindealer.
regards
Colm
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Colm,
Any signs of rapid external coolant loss, such as stone damage to radiator/broken hose? I once experienced this on a Mazda 323 which wrecked the engine with very little warning. If the coolant level falls below the sender, then it will transmit that "all is well" as its source of heat (the coolant) has gone. This is where a separate "low coolant" indicator will help. My Peugeot 405 has one. The Mazda did not.
You need to ask the dealer if the head has ever been lifted. If he responds "well, it did have a recon engine, so there should be no problem" then suspect that it has not been put back together properly.
The learned David Woollard, Citroen specialist aka "middleman" should be along soon, but, meanwhile, I will share my observation that these heads, once lifted, seldom settle down completely again, and continue to cause problems. However, if you have even a small amount of mechanical empathy, you should note a general increase in temp. gauge reading if there is a slight leak via the head. Plus, possibly, starting problems.
HTH
Rob
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I used to have a Volvo 740 turbodiesel. It blew two gaskets in a year. The second time I was quick to spot the smoke and I too had normal coolant level in the expansion tank and a normal reading on the temperature guage. After the cost of the damage done the first time I was looking really carefully, so at least you know you are not the only one to experience this.
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I say "oh dear" as it is a bit of a 'job' to do the head gasket on the Xantia TD (Fiddly)
There need not be any external indication of impending head gasket failure - most head gaskets fail internally and not externally (Except the Rover K Series engine, that is!)
Bought it from a dealer? Do you have a warranty?
I'd say if it went to court, he'd be liable.
MG-Rover Questions? forums.mg-rover.org/
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There could be many reasons Colm, but it may be just down to bad luck!
This engine does have a slight tendency to blow head gaskets and this can depend on the car that the engine is in. From my years of reading Diesel Car, it was usually the Peugeot 405 and Citroen ZX that this use to happen on!! Not the Xantia!
Peugeot and Citroen will never admit to it and a weakness on this engine was never proven. This engine was without doubt the most popular diesel engine since 1994 and powered various Peugeot's, Citroen's and Rover 200's. You could almost say that there would be more failures with this engine purely because there were so many sold!A matter of statistics really.
So, what can cause a head gasket to go:
1) Neglected coolant changes.
2) Hitting the rev limiter a lot.
3) Overheating (I know you said there was no sign of this)
4) Poorly manufactured gasket.
Also, what mileage has the car done? The previous owner may have caned the engine continuously. This engine doesn't mind being driven hard but at the end of the day, it may suffer.
A seven year old vehicle is surely 'sold as seen' unless the dealer wants to give a warranty with it. I know you don't want to hear it but, it may just be bad luck!
Isn't that where we started?
Seriously Colm, best of luck if you go back to the dealer. If you don't ask, you don't get!
Hope you are back on the road soon.
Cheers - Jon S
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Many thanks for all the responses. As it happens its appears that the head gasket isn't blown... well that is what the dealer is saying, although he showed it to me i wouldn't what one would look like anyway. But the head was badly damaged and warped... the car was only 6 weeks old (to me !! that is) so regarding the coolant, I can only imagine that it should be ok! What else could cause the head to warp? Overheatign, yes but how. It appears that there was lots of coolant in the system.... when you have all picked yourselves up from the floors laughing you might have time to answer the questions... many thanks again. I suppose i don't ant this dealer (A main dealer NOT a dodgy back lane guy) to get the better of me although he may have already done so
Regards
Colm
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What else could cause the head to warp? Overheatign, yes but how. It appears that there was lots of coolant in the system....
Was it circulating properly? It can be quite an art to get all the air out of the coolant circuit on these engines if they need to be refilled.
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Yes, overheating causes the head to warp, and XUD units are sensitive to this. Make sure that the dealer checks the water pump, checks / flushes the radiator, checks the cooling fans, checks the operation of the overtemp warning lights and fits a new thermostat before rebuilding the engine.
Overheating can only be caused by lack of coolant, or lack of cooling of the coolant. Eg, if you lose the coolant it will overheat, if your pump is duff, low circualation will cause overheating, poor radiator performance (either blocked or cooling fan not working).
You may just have been unlucky, and the head cracked of its own volition, and this caused local overheating leading to the warping of the head.
Richard
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