Afternoon all,
My parents are having an issue with their '03 auto Desmond estate and advice from the collective wisdom of the forum would be greatly appreciated.
A few weeks ago the car dumped all its coolant out through a big crack in the radiator end cap (not totally sure if this was a cause or a symptom of the underlying problem). After it was towed home, dad pulled the plugs and found cylinder 4 looked wet. There was no water in the oil, or vice versa.
The peculiar thing is, all cylinders hold good pressure when tested; they were tested both warm and cold and left for c20mins without pressure drop on any cylinder.
The car's now had a new rad and been pressure tested, so all should be well right... except on its last test run, it threw a load of its coolant out through the cap on the header tank.
The car performed normally for the first 10-15mins of driving with the thermostat opening as it should and the temp gauge reflecting this. But after c15mins the car threw its coolant out, without overheating
It sounds to me like a head gasket issue, but it's odd to me that it's intermittent and the cylinders all hold pressure. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated before an exploratory head removal gets underway.