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[bbps]

A bit of general advice please.

I have a W-Reg (2000) Omega B 3.0 V6 with about 85k on the clock, and the main issue is that the head gasket has gone. It has 4 good (< 5k) Michelin Sport tyres, although one now has a slow puncture, a heavy duty battery that is about 1 year old, which has gone flat at the moment.

I have been quoted quite a bit to have the head gasket repaired, and there are also a few other bits that need doing on the car. So, after 12 years of owning the car, I have reluctantly decided that it has to go.

I just wondered how I could get the most money for it, would it be best to just sell it for scrapping, would I do better by selling it on ebay, or something else ? I think it would get around £200 for scrap.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[feeutfo]

Wo up. Given the number of false head gasket diagnosis we see here, it might be prudent to ask what the symptoms are?

Why do you think hg is gone? Who says so? And why?

What symptoms are you seeing?

[alank46]

I second that, head gasket failure is very rare, other faults can cause similar symptoms.

[bbps]

A good friend of mine that works at Vauxhall had a look and told me he thought it was the head gasket. He couldn't track the issue properly though, because it never leaked when I took it to him, so he could only see what looked like "remnants" of a leak at one of the joins on the head.

It had been leaking outside of the engine, and I had been topping it up with coolant for the past 2 years or so, and I also put some leak stop in it which did work for a while. Sometimes it would go for months without losing any coolant, and at other times I could be putting 3-4 Litres in a week.

Just before Christmas it started losing a lot of coolant again, and when I was checking the oil, the filler cap and top of the tube had a lot of brown/yellow sludge in it. I cleaned it up, but it very quickly came back. I then decided myself that the head gasket must now have gone.

I am not good with cars, but the last time it was leaking, it looked to be dripping down from the right hand side, towards the back. It was hard to see properly though, as I could only lie under the car a bit.

If that was the only thing that needed doing, then I would have considered getting it done, but I decided to take it off the road as I couldn't afford for it to die on me and be stuck without a car.

I think the car is only really worth scrapping, but I guess there may be others that would want it for parts etc, or the really brave that want a challenge of getting it repaired and road worthy again, which is why I thought it may be worth putting on ebay or something. I would also rather someone gets some use for parts etc, rather than it just being crushed for it's weight.

Thanks for the replies.

[bigtow]

did it start to use more coolant depending on what setting the heater control was set too ? mine started doing that and it turned out to be the heater bypass valve witch is located at the back of the engine . also when was the oil changed last and are you using good quality oil as if the oil is old or poor quality you will get a lot of mayo in the filler neck and on the cap i found this out through experience also the v6 suffers from mayo in the cap anyway as its the coolest part of the engine . have you tried getting someone to do a sniff test with a kit in the header tank as this will show the presence of hydrocarbons ? hope that hasn't baffled you even more     

[tunnie]

You could be loosing coolant elsewhere, like the HBV (heater by-pass valve) very, very common for this to leak fluid.

Build up of brown sludge or mayo under the filler neck is well known as well, when used in short runs and say a poor oil like Castrol. Blocked breathers won't let engine breather right and so you create all this sludge.

How much coolant are you actually loosing?

[tigers_gonads]

Oil cooler 

[tidla]

Oil cooler 

The only way to find the leak for certain is to remove the plenium chamber and pressurise the coolant system.

Hbv can been seen without parts removal. Oil cooler leak usually evaporates before dripping on the floor.

Low cost diagnostics.

[Abiton]

This is a for sale ad.
Scrap it or put it on ebay, I really don't care.

[tidla]

I know it was cold this morning, but rather than push the missus out i still got out the right side of the bed.

[dbug]

This is a for sale ad.
Scrap it or put it on ebay, I really don't care.

Nice helpful welcome for a newbie

Very unlikely to be a blown head gasket mate.  Mayo on oil cap normal on V6s and worse on short journeys or with old or crap oil as said.

Water leak from back of block most likely HBV, or coolant bridge seals.  Also dodgy hose (there are a few here) or leaky oil cooler plate.  All can be fixed cheaply, either diy or by one of the mechs on here.

HTH

[Agemo]

This is a for sale ad.
Scrap it or put it on ebay, I really don't care.

It sounds like a request for help to me, not sure if you have read it differently. 

[feeutfo]

That's not a head gasket failure.

It's a coolant leak and a bit of mayo in the filler neck, if you search the pages if this site you'll find numerous threads very similar to yours. The omega doesn't like short journeys, and forms alot of condensation under such conditions. Add in a cool thermostat and a bit off coolant loss and people jump the the wrong conclusion.


Your head gasket is fine. If you want the coolant leak fixed I'll happily take a look.

[Broomies Mate]

I'll give you £200 for it tomorrow 

[Abiton]

Newbie only joined forum to sell car, seems very obvious to me.

Which bit of this is ambiguous?:
"I think the car is only really worth scrapping, but I guess there may be others that would want it for parts etc, or the really brave that want a challenge of getting it repaired and road worthy again, which is why I thought it may be worth putting on ebay or something. I would also rather someone gets some use for parts etc, rather than it just being crushed for it's weight. "

He wants rid of it, and doesn't feel that the 250 post rule applies to him.