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[star_whites]

Hey All

Can anyone advise me on this please:

I have a 2.0 1998 Auto Est which has been having stalling isues when slowing down, however recencly it started missfiring when starting cold. This did not happen when the engine was warm, however on leaving work on wednesday evening she just kept missfiring as I drove down the road and was smoking like a pig. I eventually after 100yrds pulled into a carpark away from the stream of traffic. After three hours I was eventually recovered by Green Flag and towed home for her to sit on the drive until today so I could try and get things sorted.

The GF mechanic had a look and said headgasket as their was oil residue in the water but the dipstick was still clean. Ive checked since and can see a small amout of oil residue in the water resivoir but none in the oil.

Do you think this is the gasket as I have had a price to change this at £350 ish, with timing belt & tensioners, oil/filter, plugs/leads, and skim/pressure test. Would you say this is a good price??

[Admin]

Hold your horses with the HG replacement!  

First of all did the mechanic do a compression test or check for evidence of exhaust fumes in the header tank?
If no, then he is an idiot and simply guessing at your expense!

A compression test and/or getting the header tank "sniffed" (ask garage nicely to put CO sensor used in MOT in header tank to detect presence of exhaust fumes) is required to confirm/deny HG problem.

Is the car overheating quickly and loosing lots of coolant?

Head gasket failure is not unknown on the 2.0 lump, but you need to be certain first as misfiring and stalling can simply be caused by duff leads and sticking idle control valve.

[star_whites]

No, no compression test has been done. The car has not overheated at all, however it did drop the water level as the coolant level low warning came on.

I do know for a fact that one of the leads casing is damaged as I found it when I changed the plugs just over a month ago. I was actually going to replace them the night when it started playing up.

[Admin]

Sort the easy fixes first.

Halfords for the leads, about £30 for a set of Bosch ones for the 2.0

[star_whites]

Just gone and checked the resivoir and its completly empty, however when I removed the resevoir lid, their was a lot of back presure still.

The oil level also appears to have risen by 5mm on the dipstick but it looks more like just oil then oil & water, cause if my basic chemistry is correct the oil should be sat on the water when not run for a while and not mixed, however it did not appear to be a mixture when it first broke down cause I do believe it goes a horrible brownish colour when mixed together??

[JamesV6CDX]

Just gone and checked the resivoir and its completly empty, however when I removed the resevoir lid, their was a lot of back presure still.

The oil level also appears to have risen by 5mm on the dipstick but it looks more like just oil then oil & water, cause if my basic chemistry is correct the oil should be sat on the water when not run for a while and not mixed, however it did not appear to be a mixture when it first broke down cause I do believe it goes a horrible brownish colour when mixed together??

Oil level rising significanly.. ie by half a cm.. is not good!

Get the proper tests done

if it is the HG, it's an easy peasy job on the 2.0..

[Martin_1962]

I would now put money on a head gasket - simply due to rise in oil level.

[Gaffers]

I would suspect HG too but when I had it go on mine the RAC mechanic filled the expansion tank right up and with the lid off run the engine at about 3k revs.  You could see the constant stream of bubbles flowing into the expansion tank at which point I was certain it was HG.  Either that or the compression test on a 4 pot is easy, halfrauds do a gauge for not too much.

The price if with timing belt and tensioner seems reasonable but try and bring him down a bit.

Hope this helps.

[star_whites]

Well thanks for the advice, the old girl goes on the tow truck tomorrow morning and all being well with the compresion test and skim, I should have her back up and running by Thursday evening with a pair of new front tyres thrown in for the same price due to my little porky that someone had quote me less lol

[Admin]

  on the trye deal!

Based on the information that has been added (oil level rising!) I would agree, it is now likely the HG has failed.

Being a straight 4 cylinder engine, it is quite straightforward.

I would strongly recommend you ensure a new water pump is fitted along with the replacement cambelt kit as the water pump is driven off the cambelt and failure would be very bad!

Oh, and get some new plug leads fitted!  

[star_whites]

Well all work rec has been carried out, however the old girl is still in the dry dock. The mechanic had the head pressure tested with no problems and rebuild the engine. However on starting her up she has thrown up a couple of fault codes and keeps the engine management light on.

The mechanic states that he cleared the memory and restarted and only one code came back up. That was the crank shaft sensor?? He informed me that when running she is running eratically and when you try to drive her she is extremly sluggish and doesnt want to go. He told me that he plans to get another sensor  tom and test it again however I would like a second opinion if anyones got one.

PS any ideas on the price of a new sensor  

[razzo]

crank sensor £20-£40 www.vauxcentre.co.uk