Hello and congratulations for this site.
I would really appreciate it if you could give me your advice!
Im going to take the car to the mechanic tomorrow to fix a blown head gasket.
(symptoms are reduced performance, bubbles of gass coming through the water
in the radiator and overheating)
I have had overheating problems all the summer of 2008, took it 3 times to the mechanic,
changed water pump, radiator, radiator cup and thermostat. By the third time summer was almost over so temperatures were not so high and did nt have any overheating issue
until yesterday (begining of new summer of 2009...).
The car was overheated as it did last summer, so i let it cool down and then opened radiator to add some water and noticed that this time there were bubbles forming up, many bubbles, so including reduced performance i quess its 100% a case of a blown
head gasket.
Sorry to bother you with all these details, bottom line is since the mechanic is going to open a certain part of the engine to replace the gasket, does this give him the chance to chek also anything else at that part of the engine?
And do you have any suggestions?
I really need your help cause i have spend a fortune on this car because i love it so much
but so far i have nt been able to use it with pleasure any summer :(
Please forgive my bad english, i am from Greece.
Thank you for your time and for reading my topic!
Looking forward for your presious advice.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 08/06/2009 at 19:45
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They are indeed a very good car and worth spending money on, although I must say that I prefer the diesel ones.
The overheating problem is probably what has caused the head gasket to fail, on a car of that age the radiator would be the chief suspect but as you have had it changed it can be ruled out. Is the cooling fan coming on when the engine is hot? In normal fairly fast driving it doesn't matter, but at low speed in traffic it is essential, get your mechanic to check.
I would advise that the head be machined while it is off to make sure that it is completely flat.
Bye the way, your English is excellent.
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:-))
Thank u very much for your reply.
Its nice to see im not the only one who likes this car so much.
To answer your question, the cooling fan starts to function as it should. My only concern is
that maybe i should replace the fan. The reason i say that is because i had the chance to
take a good look at the fan las summer at the mechanic, it looked really old and also had some clips on its wings (placed there to make it balanced i presume). the same kind of heavy metalic clips that mechanics put on the wheels to make them balanced if the wheel is
problematic and starts shaking after the vehicle gains some speed. (i hope i make sense here).
Anyway i did forget to tell you that all overheating problems sarted right after i installed air
conditioning system last summer. So next to the fan that u mentioned, now stands the brand new fan for the airc conditioning system. I speculate that maybe they are competing each other about the air intake or maybe im just talkind rubish, at these point i dont even
know what to think.
Now that i think about it, the overheating was not very specific as to when it was occuring,
i mean the car was not overheating only when in heavy traffic and had little air. it was also overheating when driving on open road with 80 miles per hour where the air was definetly
enough but the engine was surely under pressure.
Im going to the mechanic in about an hour and will hopefully have the car ready late this afternoon. Will insist having the head machined following your kind advice. And will let u know how it went and if that cured the overheating problems.
Again, thank u very very much.
have a great day!!!
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You have fitted aircon! that's a brave project. That will make the problem worse because of the increased load on the engine and the hot air from the condenser. I wonder if the aircon models were fitted with a larger radiator?
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Wow, this man loves his car!
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just droping these lines cause i wanted u guys to know how cool u are.
You gave me advice, courage and made me smile with your comments
and that my friends is the best help a man can get in this planet :)
Will keep u informed on how my 405 revive program is going :)
If things work alright, i decided to name my car Lazarus lol
Tomorrow will have more news to share as i take the car back from the
mechanic. Minimum estimated cost 300 euro. (incudes head machined, gasket,
some other stuff i dont know how to say in english (round black rings to seal stuff)
new oil, and cooling liguid).
Again thank u so much for all your comments!
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round black rings to seal stuff = O Rings ?
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yes i think so. thats the shape though, and the material is like rubber or something. sorry i dont know the name in english. its to secure from liquids etc. to seal stuff.
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That's the name "O Rings" unusually in English it describes exactly what t does !
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Peter u are right. And yes fortunatly i asked for a larger radiator. Unfortunatly the huge one did nt fit in with all that air/c equipment istalled, but the new one was about 2 inches biger than the original one.
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Mmm, the only other suggestion I can make is don't drive so fast.
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MY LITTLE BIG ADVENTURE
i promised i would follow up this post and let u know the happy ending of this story
but im afraid there is no happy ending.. at least not for now..
i took the car this morning from the mechanic, the car sounded weird, reminded me
more of a tracter than of my old familiar noice of my car. When i said that to the mechanic
he smiled with confidence and told me not to worrie.
I did worrie but rode the car to the highway (15 minutes time away from mechanic).
After 2 or 3 minuted on the highway going with 55 - 60 miles per hour the temperature
started rising and a metalic tic tac noice was more and more evident. Then, 20 minutes
after i took the car from the mechanic and while i was geting ready to immediatly pull over, it just died all of the sudden. Mind u the temperature at no point had enough time to rise abouve 195F (the normal temperature here in summer is 175).
So the car did nt die from overheating.
So i decided im not gona name the car Lazarus at this point.
Then under the summer sun with the predicted temperature for today at 100F, i pushed the car for 50 meters just to take it to a safe place until help arrived.
I went straight to the mechanic and he was socked to hear the news i must say.
i said maybe it woud be better to forget about this engine, try to find a second hand one in good condition and he agreed. I asked him what now with the cost of the new (old) engine and he told me not to worry we will work it out (meaning im goint to pay no more or going to pay very little money).
Other than that, the sun is shining, many beautifull women out there on mini skirts and life goes on.
I took so much negative energy from this event i decided i had to put a huge amount of possitive one to balance it. So i decided to quit smoking!!!!
:-)
its all good!!! :)
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you must have the heart of a lion lol keep it up lol
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lol !!! well u know what they say, if u cant avoid a rape at least try to enjoy it!! :-)
(just kidding)
Thanks for your kind comment.
And a final question for u all guys.
Now that the engine is going to be replaced, and if we assume that the new (second hand one) is in ok condition, is there any part that u would suggest to also check or replace
of the new engine? I mean its a good oppotrunity now cause the engine wont be installed on the car and its easy to approach any part of it.
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my big worry would be that the 'new' engine is not any better than the last one.
It must be getting on by now, so can you be sure you are getting a good engine?
Can you see it working in a car , and not overheating or smoking.
as has been said, you must be a glutton for punishment!
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thanks for your reply. I must admit, i worrie about the ... new - old engine too.
I was at the mechanic this morning and had the chance to see the old engine taken out of the car, and placed side by side with the "new" one.
There are no words to describe how many problems i had lately with the old engine so
from this point of view, im quite confident that it does nt get any worse than it already was..
Also another piece of information i got is that the old engine is completly destroyed (in Greek we call it stuck, to describe that the damage is so bad that the moving parts of the engine are no longer moving...)
The good news is that im not going to pay any money to the mechanic, and the new engine costs 300 euro which i consider reasonable. The mechanic chose the new engine after inspecting it and said that it is newer model than the old one and in much better condition.
He said he is very optimistic but he cant quarantee anything until he puts all parts together
and see it working!
SO... wish me luck guys... this is the last chance this car has to run on the roads again...
if this also fails.... well i dont even want to think about it but it will be end of story for this car.
Does glutton for punishment means masochist? :-) If so, really i am not!! i just happen to really love my car!!!
I DONT WANT a japanese car as all my friends recomment!!! :-(
But i must admit, i should have seen the signs, and get rid of this machine earlier and try to find another one in a better condition.
I have come to the conclusion all these overheating symptoms were symptoms of an old old old engine who was geting ready to die after runing for 20 years non stop...
Edited by lakedaimon on 13/06/2009 at 16:11
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Well good luck with the new engine, as you say it can't be any worse than the old one. The English for 'stuck' is 'seized', but hats off to you you're English is far better than our Greek!
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:-) Thank you Jonny!
Just droped by to bring you the good news. Ok this is a forum about technical problems but it dont hurt to bring new about a solved problem does it? :)
Especially after all of you guys gave me your advice for which i thank u again very much.
Today i took the car from the mechanic and i must admit it that the new engine sounds and feels nothing like the old one. No messy noise at all, very stable at idle, no tic tic noise from valves, sounds excellent.
And regarding performance.... it rocks!!! :) Most important i love the smooth sound it makes now. at last it sounds like an engine in perfect order.
And quess what, NO OVERHEATING AT ALL! So overheating was not because of radiator, not because of water pump or whatever else but because of a veeery
old engine.
All in all i payed 350euro for the first repair of the old dead engine, 300 euro to buy the new (old engine) and 150 euro for various spare parts that were needed to install the new engine.
Lazarus (my car) and i thank u very much for your care and support and advices.
Hopefully we wont need your help any time soon but we ll be serfing in this forum
since its very interested and full of usefull advices and experiences.
THANK U VERY MUCH ENJOY YOUR SUMMER!!!!
PEGEUOT 405 :-)
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