I have a 1999 Polo 1.6 Automatic. After a short trip today within about half a mile of home I noticed the red temperature warning light flashing and the temperature indicator moving towards max.
When I got home (few mins) I let it cool and looked and found virtually no water in the expansion tank. I topped it up to between the Max & Min lines and ran the engine. Seemed OK.
Took it for a short trip round the block and again it overheated. This time the tank wasn't empty but was very down on where it had been after my top up.
As I have Green flag home start I called them out. The guy arrived quickly, and tried a few things and as he was running the engine it started to get hot and the coolant was forced out under pressure near the header tank.
After a whiel to cool he opened the cap on the top of the tank and a lot of pressure was released and the tank almost filled with coolant pushed back from the engine.
He felt it was the head gasket and towed it off to be checked out at a local garage.
This just happened suddenly - is it likely o be the head gasket ? I did notice that even with the engine very hot the fan was not running. Could it be the water pump that has failed? or it is more likelyt o be the gasket?
Regards
Clive