Corsa 1.2 Head Gasket...

johnnairn

Wrench Pro
Points
26
Location
Poole UK
Car
A3 1.8T Quattro
So I have found in my possession a little 1.2 vauxhaul corsa, 16v, 02 plate, with only 29,000 on the clock.

The owner took it to a garage, who advised the head gasket was on its way out, the inside of the oil filler cap is a sort of frothy light brown colour and the oil level on the dip stick is higher than normal.

Is it 100% likely to be the head gasket? Seems a low mileage, new-ish car to be having these sorts of problems!? Or is this a common fault with the corsa?

Also if anyone has done one of these any hints/tips would be much appreciated, I've done peugeot ones but even the haynes gives quite an in depth explanation with mention of "special tools" etc...

Thanks for any help :)
 
I guess you could try retorqueing the head bolts. The symptoms sound classic head gasket. They often go if the engine has overheated at all. Is the temp sensor OK? Does it stay at a lowish temp when you drive it or does it shoot up?

Try an oil change and see how you get on with fresh oil - see how bad the leak is. You should be experiencing a drop of coolant as well.
 
Thanks, it's my uncle's car and he took it to a garage, who did a compression test and said it needed doing, temp seemed to get to normal operating level but not sure if it was ever run really hot.

Am slowly working my way through the process currently, nice clean engine to work on - it's a relief there's no rusty bolts! Inside of the cam cover was completely covered in the forthy brown oil, hopefully this will sort it out :)
 
I would do a sniff test on the coolant as well to be sure, then you will know for definite there is hydrocarbons getting in the cooling system which is an indication of head gasket failure, for sure a compression test is a good way but not a 100% sure way,

Head gasket failure isn't really down to the mileage of the car, I'd say more so in driving style and how it's been looked after.
Using the car in a lot of stop start traffic will put more stress on it than using it on a motorway,
 
Well after quite some time of it sitting on my drive I finally got under the bonnet and have pretty much done it, after having the oil pressure switch pack up on me and oil dripping out at a rate of knots! So thank you for all the advice...

Now I have a slight other problem, the car gets up to temperature fine, thermostat opens and shuts as it should, however when I put the heater on, which blows hot air, the temperature drops from 90 down to just above 80 over a period of 5-10mins and doesn't seem to rise again. The car is sat whilst running so there's not air flow passing through the engine. Firstly should this temperature drop happen, and if not could it be the coolant temperature sensor, or could I still have a small air lock?

Cheers
 
it will drop as you are letting the hot water flow a bit more
when you run a engine up after draining the water first thing you do before starting is put the heaters on
bleeds easyer

normaly corsa's bleed easy so should not have any traped air normaly if you have a good drive up teh road normaly gets it all out

am doing a head gasket on a 1.2 corsa at the min the chain is much easyer then a cam belt but just a load more bolts
 
yer i enjoy the chain too, and the auto tensioner makes things ALOT easier! i ended up doing the timing cover gasket as it was looking dodgey around the water pump seal and then thought i might as well do the sump while i was there!

with regards the temp drop, i would have thought it would drop a bit, but you'd imagine it would get back up to 90ish again...?

drove the thing earlier down the road and back, less than half a mile and got the engine management light on :S no idea why, and no fault code reader for the thing so going to replace the temp sensor and if that doesn't cure it i'm going to have to get a diagnostics reading for hopefully a few pennies :( which sucks really as i thought i'd done it all right. any other ideas as to what it could be? i'm sure the timing is fine, engine sounds alright, tiny bit lumpy but figured it needs a good drive to clear it all out...
 
thanks for all your advice, changed the oil pressure switch and coolant temp sensor and the thing seems to be running pretty well :) temp doesn't seem to drop so much now, especially when be driven. overall not a particularly hard job, just time consuming!
 
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