Peugeot 206 Head Gasket or Radiator

Clarkey_24

H there, im hoping someone can help me. Ive driven my car today for about 10 minutes when it started to overheat. I stopped the car and put some water in the radiator as it was very low. Ater then driving again for about 10 mins it over heated (up to the red), smoke was coming from under my bonnet and when I stopped and orangey liquid was coming from the bottom of my car although I couldnt see where from. When I opened up the bonnet all the water was gone from the water tank. I managed to drive home after putting more water in but im really worried that my head gasket has gone. Ive checked the dip stick and there is no white substance on there.

A few months ago the orangey liquid was leaking into my footwell and the garage flushed out the radiator and up until now it has been fine.

Any ideas anyone?

computershack

If it was leaking into the footwell then the internal heater matrix, the heater valve or pipe was leaking and flushing it would not fix it. You need to take it to a garage to get it pressure tested. If the garage who flushed the system didn't replace the anti-freeze then with the last couple of days temperatures, you could have a split radiator or a cracked cylinder head.

A blown headgasket doesn't always result in mayonnaise in the oil.

I suggest you use a different garage to the one that "fixed" the earlier leak.

trigger_mike

It's worth getting it checked out asap rather then carrying on using it but i would say it's most likely a split coolint pipe which is leaking.
The cold weather can freeze them if there isn't enough anti-freeze in the system and then split the pipes.
The water in the footwell would be a cream crackered heater matrix like Computershack said, Which isn't a cheap job as in some cars the dash has to come out to fix it.

DaveMacD

Just a general observation, but why is it when 'the water looks a bit low', most folks top up with water, and not anti-freeze? If you just use water, you are only diluting what little frost protection you have left.

Lurchtheengineer

I would have to agree with the previous posts,also i hope you put hot water in to the resevior as cold water will damage a hot engine if the water level is low.Also as stated get some antifreeze in asap and take it to a different garage,i personally would not drive it until its fixed due to the risk of engine damage.

ozvaldinho

I've had the heater matrix go on several old Peugeots I've had, they seem to corrode internally and are very flimsy. Usually I put in a bottle of K-Seal which does a great job. I've got 2 running at the moment where they've had leaks fixed by K Seal and are running a year later with no coolant loss.
I suspect you've got frozen pipes through lack of antifreeze, maybe you will have to replace some split or burst hoses as a result.

Good luck!

computershack

ozvaldinho wrote: »

I've had the heater matrix go on several old Peugeots I've had, they seem to corrode internally and are very flimsy. Usually I put in a bottle of K-Seal which does a great job. I've got 2 running at the moment where they've had leaks fixed by K Seal and are running a year later with no coolant loss.
Good luck!

That bodge is OK until you renew the antifreeze at which point it'll get blown out usually.