V6 Head Gasket?

[CM2007]

I have a 1996 mk1 V6 Galaxy. In the last week, we have noticed a couple of times the fan seems louder than usual and so I thought it may be the bearings. Being an idiot that puts things off far too much, I have never got round to replacing a faulty temperature sensor, that's my first mistake!

My wife turned up at my work today saying the fan has not stopped whirring really loudly so I got her to pop the bonnett and it was spinning like a drill, it was noisy because it was spinning 3 times the speed it usually does. I put 2 and 2 together and thought the car is trying hard to cool itself, therefore it must be too hot. I looked at the coolant bottle, NO COOLANT! so to check the pressure, I very slowly loosened the cap and after about 1 turn, there was a sudden hissing and steam bellowed from the back of the engine and a puddle appeared under the car.

 

I work in a garage so when I told the mechanics, most of them had that look on their face that says 'OH DEAR' followed by a cringe. I'm already braced for the worst news but I wonder if anyone has had a similar thing with their V6 and whether there are any pipes round the back of the engine which may have given up or perhaps something else?

 

Cheers

Mike

[sepulchrave]

You may be panicking prematurely, the head gasket on these is actually quite hard to blow despite your best (and frankly inexcusable) efforts.

 

It sounds like the expansion tank vent pipe has been tucked down the back somewhere instead of being correctly routed to the front of the car, this explains the violent release of p**s and wind at the back somewhere when you loosened the cap.

 

It is more likely that the dreaded thermostat housing has been leaking subtly allowing the coolant level to drop.

 

So stop panicking and top her up, replace the temperature sender and see how rapidly you lose coolant from now on.

 

I'd be surprised if it's the head gasket.

[CM2007]

You may be panicking prematurely, the head gasket on these is actually quite hard to blow despite your best (and frankly inexcusable) efforts.

 

It sounds like the expansion tank vent pipe has been tucked down the back somewhere instead of being correctly routed to the front of the car, this explains the violent release of p**s and wind at the back somewhere when you loosened the cap.

 

It is more likely that the dreaded thermostat housing has been leaking subtly allowing the coolant level to drop.

 

So stop panicking and top her up, replace the temperature sender and see how rapidly you lose coolant from now on.

 

I'd be surprised if it's the head gasket.

 

 

Well, if this was a competition, you definatley win a prize!

The workshop controller at my place has a friend who is a service manager at VW who confirmed head gaskets arevery rare on the VR6 engine and your theory about the vent pipe checks out.

While one of the guys was checking my car over, he got me to fill the coolant bottle as he was checking for leaks and he said the coolant looked like it was leaking from the exhaust manifold? the car seemed to be holding most of the water in so he started her up and ran until hot, then steam started coming from that area. I looked and saw the vent pipe dangling over the exhaust downpipe and hey presto, the penny dropped!

After we cleared that out of the way the steam stopped and he found a very slight leak at one of the T-piece junctions where 3 pipes meet at the back of the engine.

I got the t-piece with 2 pipes which come with it for

Edited March 27, 2009 by CM2007