Just done a weekly fluids check on my vehicle (\'95 306 1.9 D turbo) and it looks like a small head gasket failure. There\'s a bit of oil in the water but the oil looks fine (no signs of moisture under the filler cap). Thing is I need to catch a flight from Stansted airport at 630 am tomorrow (sunday) morning and have no option other than to drive. All in this will be a 300 mile round trip. Would any of you still drive the car in this condition or am I risking causing permanent damage? the car\'s already done 135k.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
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Well I'd chance it, so long as it's been running OK recently. Take oil and water with you, take it easy and keep a careful eye on the gauges. If it starts to overheat, don't continue, that's when you'll risk damaging things. good luck
Baz
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Keep the revs down as much as possible (without the engine labouring) and that should help.
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Sounds like a leak between the oil gallery and coolant so you should be ok. However if there was alot of water vapour in the exhaust or pressurisation of expansion tank it would indicate that the sealing rings on the head gasket had failed which is alot more serious. If that's the case you would be unwise to undertake the journey IMHO.
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Thanks for your posts guys, glad you think I can risk it. The car was driving fine before I noticed, no loss of power or smoke from exhaust and water temp was as normal. Will stick to about 60mph as this is about 2000rpm in 5th so won't have to set off much earlier. Will be back on thursday hopefully so will let you know how I get on.
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I had the head gasket go on my 306, identical to yours in age, model and mileage (Not M846... is it?), in the 'pressurised expansion tank, missing coolant' way.
I drove it with that slight weep for around 5000 miles before it finally gave up, soon after i changed the heater hose that i had inadvertantly broken whilst bleeding the many litres of air out of the system one time. Even then it just overheated quietly, no steam or anything.
Do as suggested by the other posters and i'm sure it will be fine.
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Oh, guess its too late for advice now, looking back you made the trip 2 days ago anyway!
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316 miles later and the car ran fine there and back. Took some self restraint to keep the speed down to 60 but the car never over heated or lost power. The oil looks fine (no apparent moisture) but now the coolant is completely black and seemed to be under very high pressure. Would anyone know weather the oil or water pumps at the highest pressure? I'm thinking that oil under higher pressure would find it's way into the water but not the other way round, and this must be the safer option for the sake of the engine.
Will be getting the gasket changed over the next couple of days anyway. Any idea what a fair price for the job should be, providing it all goes straight forwardly?
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Oil runs at around 3.5 bar, whereas the water runs at 1 bar max. It's unusual for this engine to have an oil - water gasket failure - it's normally a cylinder to water failure. However, the oil cooler is not unkown for failure, and this DOES put significant amounts of oil into the water - so might be worth checking (disconnect wate hoses to the oil cooler and run the engine to see if there is any sign of oil leaking out of the cooler).
Head gasket is a good 8 hours of anybody's time, plus the parts probably come in at around £100 - not much change out of £350 I wouldn't have thought.
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Thanks for your thoughts on the oil cooler, not something I'd thought of. Is it an expensive part to replace? If so what would be the consequences of having it blanked off? I think I remember the 1.9 NA diesel not having an oil cooler, with the car getting towards the end of it's life then maybe it could live without one till it dies?
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316 miles later and the car ran fine there and back. Any idea what a fair price for the job should be, providing it all goes straight forwardly? >>
Where do you live? If you live anywhere near South Somerset or Dorset I know a v. good Pug specialist that can do it on the cheap as their labour rate is low :-)
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I'm in Shrewsbury - west midlands so too far thanks anyway. The brother in law's a mechanic and helps me with a few jobs but he does'nt seem to have much spare time lately. Been to have a look at the oil-cooler and it does'nt look to complex to change. I'll get the Haynes manual out later see if I reckon I can do it.
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The N/A does have the same oil cooler as the td, its just plumbed a different way, it is fed from the head rather than the radiator. It does sound more likely it is a oil cooler failure rather than head gasket.
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have you done the head gasket yet?
If you are going to do it yourself give yourself a good 8 to 10 hours, it is a pig of a job.
You have to extract the studs form the manifold to get it off, and crawl underneither the car etc.
I would suggest getting the old WD40 out the night before and soaking all the manifold bolts etc.
You also have two choices, you can by a head gasket kit and do all the head, valve seals etc... or you can just replace the gasket, far easier.
If you do just choose to replace the gasket and not the valve seals etc make sure you buy a thermostate gasket and rocker cover gasket as well, you will need one.
Shrewsbury? I was born there 27 years ago to the day!!
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