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My 2002 Citroen C5 Diesel 2.0 HDI 110 has suddenly starting losing coolant, about a pint every 100 miles or so. There are no visible signs either of a radiator or hose/connection leak, or of stains on the ground. The car has done 68,000 miles. I asked my local garage (not a Citroen dealer) to have a look whilst it was being MOTed and he could not find anything- it behaved normally under an overnight pressure test. Any suggestions as to how to find the cause (e.g. head gasket, heater matrix etc.) ?
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 07/01/2008 at 18:13
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If there is no sign of a leak, its probably head gasket leakage blowing the water out of the filler cap vent when you are driving. Check around the cap for signs of dried antifreeze.
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Head gasket failure on these engines is not unknown. An easy check for a possible HG failure would be to run the engine for a few minutes with the coolant filler cap off and if bubbles appear within a short space of time, this indicates that combustion gases are being forced into the cooling system as a result of a leaking head gasket. Another way of testing for HG failure would be to get a garage to carry out a 'sniffer test', which would also determine whether combustion gases are entering the coolant system and causing presssurisation.
My 306 1.9TD with the old XUD9 engine ran for 7k miles with exactly these symptoms, which progressively got worse, even though the car ran fine otherwise. As such, if it is the head gasket, it will go eventually so it's best to get it looked at sooner rather than later.
Martin
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Had exactly the same symptoms with my 02 C5 HDI Auto, except that the pressure in the header tank built up quite significantly - so much so that the tank was difficult to open after standing overnight. My local Citroen dealer denied that this ever happens to the HDi motors, so took far too long to do anything about it (other than a rad cap replacement) resulting in head damage (corrosion on a machined surface - but which was the cause?? How can they tell that the head wasn't faulty, causing the gasket to fail?) as well as a blown gasket. And you can only skim 2 thou off these heads, although there are three different thickness gaskets available.A replacement head is about £1500 including (valves etc) assembly. Plus the £800 for the head gasket and the strip and reassembly. Which is why I no longer own a direct injection diesel!
This was all covered on this site about a year ago.
Good luck!
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I have just started haveing the same problem car is ok pottering around but once opened up on motorway loses water after about 5 miles it seems to be coming from expansion tank cap.Has had head gasket changed recently and does not over heat. Did you resolve your problem I would be interested to know.
bempton
snipquote
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 24/04/2008 at 21:33
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