Oil in coolant - Head gasket going?Common problem?Advice pls

turbo batch · Post by **turbo batch** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 8:06 pm

Hi Guys, first of all sorry this being my first post, but I have come over from UK-Mkivs.net Golf forum and have a question about my girlfriend W-plate 1.0E Polo.

She has just bought a new car and is at the stage of selling her Polo, which she has had for two years with 40k on the clock.

The coolant light occasionally (apparently!!!) lights up and after looking under the bonnet decided to change the coolant for her as it was looking a bit nasty. Upon doing this i noticed quite a bit of oil/grease in the coolant tank and in the hoses.

Alarm bells started ringing - HEAD GASKET, HEAD GASKET!!!

The car has only done 40k miles, is regularly serviced and she drives like little miss daisy.

* Does this necessarly mean the head gasket is on the way?
* Is this a common problem on 1.0L engines?
* Is it a get rid quick situation? (i had thought about using it until March and do a fair amount of miles)

Appreciate your comments guys.

polo power · Post by **polo power** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 8:50 pm

does she only do very short journeys in it?

turbo batch · Post by **turbo batch** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:45 pm

polo power wrote:does she only do very short journeys in it?

yeah pretty much. well i say short probably a good 5-10 miles per day and it does frequently get a longer run on weekends.

Its not just a 'pop to the shops car' but isnt frequently used on motorways.

Does this shed any light on anything? Really need advice on this as i could be driving this car next week (sold my golf today) and want to know if i should be driving it like this

turbo batch · Post by **turbo batch** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:33 pm

come on guys, really need your help here.

turbo batch · Post by **turbo batch** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:49 pm

what a sh!t forum....

Redline · Post by **Redline** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:00 pm

turbo batch wrote:what a sh!t forum....

Yeah as that's really going to endear people to help you out

There's a couple of posts in here: http://www.tigerstyle.co.uk/poloforum/v ... php?t=1158 about head gasket problems.

Nuclear_Tom · Post by **Nuclear_Tom** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:32 pm

For what its worth, Mr Manners, if there is signs of oil in the coolant, unless you have poored oil in the coolant tank, then the headgasket has already blown.

However, a change shouldn't be too pricey, probably Â£300-Â£350 depending on whether or not the head needs skimming, but its a pretty easy job to do yourself with a socket set and a torque wrench... should take about 2 hours to strip down and 2 hours to put back together, all for under Â£100 - headgasket is Â£14odd, coolant Â£15 odd, you'll want some cooling system flush for about Â£5 and an oil and filter change will be in order too.

Any more help needed, just ask.

Tom