Head gasket oil leak

27th July 2012, 02:43

Hi all, newly registered member, owned two saxos -- cambelt died on a 53 plate 1.1 desire at about 92k miles, and I bought a Y reg model quite cheaply at 90k but with the timing belt done at 87.

There's been a lot of oil leaking since I've had it, accumulating quite largely and the oil is draining quickly - looking into the oil cap you can see the silver metal quite clearly and it appears dry, so I keep topping up with oil

Took it to a garage yesterday - diagnosed it as a head gasket leak after steam cleaning it. They're looking at £300 to fix it by replacing the gasket essentially.

I also have a font exhaust leak - there's two holes in the exhaust that I've tried to cover with putty temporarily. My intention is to swap over parts from the 53 plate so I plan on swapping the front exhaust over with the help of a buddy.

But the mechanic warned of a possible fire risk with the leaking oil and the exhaust. I don't really know what to do - the cost of the repair is almost the price of the car, plus I had to get new brakes and a calliper replaced a while back. Is it worth getting the fix or just to keep adding in new oil weekly?

27th July 2012, 02:54

You can buy a cheap engine in very good condition for less that £300 mate.

Fire risk is possible.

Can you change the engine yourself ???

27th July 2012, 02:57

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CITROEN-SA...item3cc3e43a7e

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-Sa...item2572963f74

Not sure if your ecu will plug straight in to a new engine though, you need to find out

27th July 2012, 02:58

Bargain

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CITROEN-SA...item23101b4d0e

27th July 2012, 03:06

I doubt I could change an engine - I have no experience on car repairs bar changing a headlight (which was a bitch to get out!)

Could've just bought a new engine for the 53 plate! Hmm...in a bit of a dilemma about what to do now. I'd only just passed the MOT on that one after paying shitloads for a rear axle due to knackered suspension

27th July 2012, 04:05

Difficult when you cant do things yourself, you dont wanna be paying someone £200 to do a engine swap either.

where you based, maybe someone on here could do the headgasket correctly for cheaper dude

27th July 2012, 04:55

Headgasket is quite a simple job really.

Plus engines can be bought cheaply as said before. I bought one for £65 as I needed a new cylinder head (second hand suppliers were charging around £140 for the head alone)

Where are you based?

27th July 2012, 08:47

if your looking for engine i got a vtr engine
new head gasket
new bolts
new stem seals only just done (21/7/12)
yearly serviced

31st July 2012, 11:12

Hi all,

I'm in South Wales (Merthyr Tydfil). If I was to get a new engine, I wouldn't know which car to chuck it into! The 52 plate has equal mileage to the Y reg but has had a lot of work performed it and the MOT is in april - the older car's MOT is in September and I'm a little worried about it having to do loads of work to pass

perhaps I'll wait about until then, see how badly the car fails....but then the 52 plate has been sitting about which can't be too good.

godamn do I hate cars

31st July 2012, 11:26

As said, I would take it on yourself. I'm doing a gasket at the moment taking my time as I'm also doing a lot of other bay work.

prior to this I'd never tackled one and have limited experience, if yours is an sohc engine it's even easier too.

Just time consuming.

31st July 2012, 11:37

I try to do stuff myself headgasket took me about 6 hours.

Its a hell of alot of work tbh stripping it all down skimming, checking everything doing the cambelt etc but saves at least £300!

New engine would be better tbh.

31st July 2012, 12:00

it's a matter of time/lack of skill, tools and nowhere to do it except on my shared parking drive outside the house

I use the car for work every day so it'd have to be done in the day and I don't get home until 6

Is it a bad idea to just keep chucking oil in it weekly for the time being and to ignore the leak?

31st July 2012, 12:02

are you sure its not just the rocker gasket leaking?

31st July 2012, 12:21

That's what my father's friend thought (he's been doing his own car repairs for as long as I know) but I took it into a garage saying I thought it was that (an oil seal behind the cambelt cover) but the garage said it was coming from the head gasket itself. They steam cleaned the engine down too.

I have my doubt about whether they'd try and rip me off - they took the whole cam cover off (and haven't replaced it which worries me a little, they said it's fine) and also changed my cambelt while they were there and didn't charge me. My company that I work for takes all their vehicles to this garage so we have a kind of partnership and when I booked it into the wrote my company name in the book as if to indicate to be a bit nicer or something

Is there a way I can check for sure which one it is?

31st July 2012, 12:22

I could also get pictures of how it looks under the hood if that'd be any help?

31st July 2012, 12:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by sproaty

I could also get pictures of how it looks under the hood if that'd be any help?

yeah mate that will help

1st August 2012, 11:04

not too sure what to take a picture of really - the cambelt is exposed and the two gears (cam and crank?) and I can see the alternator belt - worth taking a photo of anything in that area?

or do parts have to come off to tell whether it's the head or rocker that leaks

1st August 2012, 15:05

You can keep topping it up with oil/water but it WILL overheat eventually if the hg has gone, just carry on in your situation until you've got enough wonga to get it done or bought a replacement runabout or something.

I drove my old vtr for months on a fucked hg.

the garage won't be wrong in their prognosis as they would of just compression tested the block I guess

1st August 2012, 15:15

quite alot of garages say its the head gasket when its actually the rocker cover so they charge 300 odd quid to do hg and just change a £3 rocker gasket

1st August 2012, 15:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by sam_16v

quite alot of garages say its the head gasket when its actually the rocker cover so they charge 300 odd quid to do hg and just change a £3 rocker gasket

Surely, if it was the rocker the oil would be higher up than if it was the gasket?

28th August 2012, 16:11

exhaust fell off today, MOT is due on Sept 19th. Fuck it, scrapping this piece of shit