Hi all, just after a bit of advise. I was driving my car on the motorway the other week and noticed the coolant temp was right at the top in the red and there was smoke coming out the exhaust when i was letting of the gas. Pulled over to find no water at all in the coolant tank. so i filled it back up and carried on. All was fine for the next week. I only bought the car a few weeks ago all its all been fine. Now the car is only blowing very slightly warm water when the car is moving at speed. As soon as i pull up to the lights its cold again. The coolant temp guage builds up to normal temprature when at idle but as soon as i get driving for a couple of minutes the guage goes right down to the bottom of the cool end and stays there till in stop and let the car idle for a bit. The car itself drives totally fine so im baffled but the garage i took it to today said the head gaskit had gone. I thought if that was true it would run badly and use water but i only top the water up once a week. Any ideas please its really bugging me

 

We have seen some quite subtle head gasket failures on these. They tend to leak quite small amounts compared to other engines which chuck it out all over the place. They don't usually oil/water mix. We've seen them where you can run around for a couple of days with no bother, then they lose water by blowing it out of the filler cap when under boost. The first you know of it is when the heater fails, due to lack of coolant in the hoses. If it's a WRX with composite gaskets, they are more likely to fail.

 

Any idea how much it would cost to sort out mate

 

Just did a few checks as advised by people. Car gets up to temp normally when i had it idling this morning for 20 minutes and the fans cut in as they should after about 15 mins. No hot air coming into the car from the heater though. Checked the radiator pipes and the top pipe was hot and the bottom one was slightly less hot but still warm. Looked in the overflow pipe infront of the battery and it was at the level it should be. Checked the oil cap and dip stick and no gunk at all. Could it be a thermostat ?

 

getting bit worried now my water come s out near the bat.mine looks like there a leak on the little coolant container as it its not wet on the over flow pipe .my water goes down every few days

 

Afriad not,,,, if your temp guage is at normal then you should be getting hot air from the heater, regardless of weather the thermostat has a problem or not.

From your description of the fault it does sound like you have the early symptoms of head gasket failyer i'm afraid..... In answer to your question about the costs of replacing these....... Well that all depends on who you get to do the job, but if you have it done properly by a dealer or specialist, I would be looking to pay around the 1k mark

 

mine has got the same problem nd you need to catch the problem as soon as possibe cuz the longer u drive it the more damage u do. iv ran mine like it nd its chewed the oil up nd now my bottom end has gone with the gasket nd im lookin a tuns of wedge to repair.

 

Somebody asked me the other day if the pipes leading to and from the radiator were easy to squeeze and they were, but i have just got back from work and thought id have a little check under the bonnet and check the pipes, they were both warm but very difficult to squeeze and i could feel there was alot of preasure in there. Does this point to any other problems ???

 

Was the engine hot, cold or somewhere in between when you did this?

Doesn't really mean anything at this point. You'd expect them to be soft when the engine is cold and hard when the engine is hot, as the cooling system pressurises. However, they would also be hard if the head gasket was leaking combustion gases into the cooling system and there's no way for us to tell you which is which. A garage will, as they'll be able to test for the presence of CO in the liquid.

 

Your hoses should be dificult to squeeze as the cooling system is designed to be pressurised when hot, If there was any excessive pressure being introduced to the system via the leaking head gaskets, then this would be vented out of the system by the header tank pressure cap and then through the overflow tank by the battery.

 

The car was warmish i suppose, about a 10 min drive from work to home and i don't get to go above 30 the whole way back. I did also take the lid off the pipe infront of the battery and had a close look ( in the dark ) using my mobile phone as light. I couldn't quite tell if it was bubbling slightly or just moving from the vibration of the car and it smelled of fuel in there, is this me fooked or what ?

 

Hi again, Have finally come to the conclusion that the head gasket is on its way out. Noticed some very slight milkyness at the bottom of the dip stick. Been quoted £600 by a garage near me in Northampton but i lost my job last month so isn't really an option for me. Only owned the car 4 months and paid £2500 for it, never ever had any luck with cars, they all seem to go wrong in my hands. I must be cursed or something, would anyone like to make me an offer as its just going to sit around on my drive otherwise. It has a de-cat afterburner exhaust on it, induction kit, bailey dump valve, alpine cd player. If anyone is interested just email me your number and i'll get back to you. Cheers

 

I drove around in mine with a fooked head gasket for over a month with no damage done fair enough it was only for going shopping etc in, you need to keep it off boost at all times though, keep an eye on your heater's keep an eye on your header tank and keep some water in the car incase you need to top it up

 

Its just typical that its happened when im out of work and can't afford to repair it, don't suppose you know anyone looking for a cheap scooby do you. Need the money more than i need the car at the moment