Is it a gasket?

gian

Ok i Have a year 2000 Skoda octavia and It has a coolant loosing problem recetly that I have to refill it everytime I go for a drive, I research the symptoms It has and Im pretty sure its the gasket so I brought it to my mechanic for a check and He told me It has a hose leak and He changed it (even though compression test was good, I don't understand it really)
So i drove it for a couple of days to see if.there's going to be a difference but it went from bad to worse now it has symptoms of..
Sweet scent off the exhaust
White smoke off the exhaust but disappears when driving
Oil still milky on the oil refil cap
Sometimes the car won't start wont even turn
Still loosing coolant
Hard pressure and smoke coming out of the coolant reservoir

So is it the headgasket or not??

martinr5232

gian wrote: »

Ok i Have a year 2000 Skoda octavia and It has a coolant loosing problem recetly that I have to refill it everytime I go for a drive, I research the symptoms It has and Im pretty sure its the gasket so I brought it to my mechanic for a check and He told me It has a hose leak and He changed it (even though compression test was good, I don't understand it really)
So i drove it for a couple of days to see if.there's going to be a difference but it went from bad to worse now it has symptoms of..
Sweet scent off the exhaust
White smoke off the exhaust but disappears when driving
Oil still milky on the oil refil cap
Sometimes the car won't start wont even turn
Still loosing coolant
Hard pressure and smoke coming out of the coolant reservoir

So is it the headgasket or not??

More than likely maybe time to change mechanic to if he cant diagnose a problem with those symptoms.

gian

martinr5232 wrote: »

More than likely maybe time to change mechanic to if he cant diagnose a problem with those symptoms.

Sad but I have to agree..

mickdw

Does sound like a head gasket.

Maybe there was an obvious coolant leak and this in turn caused you to overheat the engine / damage gasket or head. Maybe the mechanic found the obvious leak and didn't realise there were other issues.

pablo128

There could have been a burst hose, causing the engine to overheat and damage the head gasket. Not excusing the mechanic, but the gasket might have been gone just a tiny bit at the time. You said yourself it's gotten worse. I'll hazard a guess and say that because the pipe has been replaced, there is more pressure in the system now causing more coolant to enter the cylinder.
Either way, the mechanic A - should have investigated why the hose blew in the first place. B - investigated if the head gasket was gone as a result of the burst hose.

gian

mickdw wrote: »

Does sound like a head gasket.

Maybe there was an obvious coolant leak and this in turn caused you to overheat the engine / damage gasket or head. Maybe the mechanic found the obvious leak and didn't realise there were other issues.

That's could be possible.

dhog4n

The head gasket failure should have shown up in the compression test I would have thought? Unless it had only just begun to fail at that point. My guess is that it will show up now that the problem has worsened.

I have just been through all this on my jeep and have replaced the cylinder head due to cracks caused by the overheating. The cracking is a feature of my engine (old toyota 2.4 turbo diesel) and not typical of most engines I believe.

gian

dhog4n wrote: »

The head gasket failure should have shown up in the compression test I would have thought? Unless it had only just begun to fail at that point. My guess is that it will show up now that the problem has worsened.

I have just been through all this on my jeep and have replaced the cylinder head due to cracks caused by the overheating. The cracking is a feature of my engine (old toyota 2.4 turbo diesel) and not typical of most engines I believe.

Yea it only just worsened recently and now it looks like im doing a smoke show with this car.. will something get damage? because i never really overheated the car i always keep it topped up with coolant.

dhog4n

There is a danger of significant damage to both head and the block and pistons if you keep using it without repairing it. It depends on the materials from which it is all made. My old cylinder head had corrosion and pitting in the worst cylinder and had distorted the crack by almost a full 1mm. If you can see a crack at all, then it is big enough to let coolant into the cylinder.

I think you need to do a calculation of the cost of repair vs. replacement second hand engine vs. selling to a mechanic or scrap and replacing the car.

If you don't repair it, I think it will quite soon fail to start due to coolant in the cylinders (hydrolocking) or lose enough coolant in one journey to seize.

Get a couple of guideline quotes from people who know what they're doing (eg: George Dalton on here is very knowledgeable) and make your decision based on that.

gian

dhog4n wrote: »

There is a danger of significant damage to both head and the block and pistons if you keep using it without repairing it. It depends on the materials from which it is all made. My old cylinder head had corrosion and pitting in the worst cylinder and had distorted the crack by almost a full 1mm. If you can see a crack at all, then it is big enough to let coolant into the cylinder.

I think you need to do a calculation of the cost of repair vs. replacement second hand engine vs. selling to a mechanic or scrap and replacing the car.

If you don't repair it, I think it will quite soon fail to start due to coolant in the cylinders (hydrolocking) or lose enough coolant in one journey to seize.

Get a couple of guideline quotes from people who know what they're doing (eg: George Dalton on here is very knowledgeable) and make your decision based on that.

Thank You for Your input it's quite informative thank god its a crappy car i hope the insurance can cover it i will need to read my policy and see if I could just let the car fail and get replacement from the insurance

martinr5232

gian wrote: »

Thank You for Your input it's quite informative thank god its a crappy car i hope the insurance can cover it i will need to read my policy and see if I could just let the car fail and get replacement from the insurance

Inaurance wont cover mechanical failure.

visual

gian wrote: »

Thank You for Your input it's quite informative thank god its a crappy car i hope the insurance can cover it i will need to read my policy and see if I could just let the car fail and get replacement from the insurance

Dont waste your time looking through the fine print engine failure isn't covered.

You might just need head gasket or you might need a new head.

Cheap option would be a 2nd hand head if it is needed.