head gasket leaks

Allan87

What are the signs of this as my dealership is telling me I have one whereas my local garage is telling me its an oil filter leak which just needs a seal replacing?

reduceditem

Simple. Your local garage will be telling you the truth.

hewhoisnotintheknow

an oil filter leak will take minutes and a couple of quid to fix, tryy it first

Chippy_Minton_2

You need to sniff test the coolant, that will tell you if the head gasket has gone.

Keith

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

You need to sniff test the coolant, that will tell you if the head gasket has gone.

It sounds like the OP has an oil leak from the head rather than a mix of water & coolant due to HGF. Like my HGF a few months back, there was no way of diagnosing it from checking the coolant

harveybobbles

Best way to tell is by using this method:

Does it have a "Rover" or "MG" badge on the car somewhere?

Allan87

harveybobbles wrote: »

Best way to tell is by using this method:

Does it have a "Rover" or "MG" badge on the car somewhere?

lol no, its a 206.

What is a sniff test?

harveybobbles

206? 1.4 petrols were comon for water loss.

flang

Oil in Water, Foam/cream substance in coolent.
Excess pressure on coolent pipes/coolent bottle.

It could just be the rocker cover has a leak.

Bowdyjan18

Allan87 wrote: »

lol no, its a 206.

What is a sniff test?

just as prone then

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=sniffer+test&meta=&rlz=

dieselhead

harveybobbles wrote: »

Best way to tell is by using this method:

Does it have a "Rover" or "MG" badge on the car somewhere?

:rotfl::rotfl: I was about to ask that! The good old 'k' series hey!

To the OP a head gasket is potentially a serious problem, the common signs are dirty chocolate milkshake coolant and the engine overheating. Your garage should have a tool that should be able to detect oil in the coolant and head gasket failure. Caught early before any damage is done it is a awkward but fixable problem.