toyota emina overheating help please.

supermum4

Hi everyone i have an N reg toyota emina which we have had since import 6 years ago, lately it has been overheating so i took it to a local garage and they have said it could need a new radiator, or it could need a new head gasket, and they have said that they would do the radiator first as this is the cheaper option £180 :eek: to see if this fixes the problem. this could be money wasted of course as he doesn't know if this will sort it. Now I was hoping that someone on here might have some experience with this kind of car, and give me some advice as the garage admits its never had any experience with this make of vehicle so working in the dark so to speak:rolleyes: any advice would be greatly appreciated sorry for the long post. thanks in advance guys:beer:

wazza

Apparently this model is prone to overheating. normally it is the fault of the head gasket.

northern_munky

If it's the radiator you should be able to see it leaking, top it up and let it run and watch for leaks, make sure it doesn't run low on coolant though.

If you suspect the head gasket, check inside the oil filler cap and the dipstick for a white creamy mixture. Is it puffing out white smoke from the exhaust pipe?

I'd try another garage if you are still stuck, any garage worth it's salt will be able to diagnose this problem.

iluvmylexus

they are prone to head gasket problems, it is not always easy to diagnose and very expensive to repair. a visual inspection of the radiator should be enough to see if the core is damaged or blocked, if that is the case it will be a lot cheaper to change a rad than a head gasket, the damaged rad may well have caused head gasket failure by allowing the engine to overheat

Conor_3

FIND ANOTHER GARAGE. Headgaskets are dead easy to diagnose. There's even a special tool to do it. It's called a "sniffer test". A bit of kit that looks like an eye drop bulb on steriods containing a liquid is used to draw a sample of the coolant out of the expansion tank. If the liquid changes colour, it indicates the presence of hydrocarbons which shows that exhaust gases are getting into the coolant - hence the headgasket is blown or the head warped/cracked.

Changing the radiator to see if it's that first is the kind of rubbish I'd expect from a mechanic whose sum total of knowledge would fit on the back of a stamp with room to spare.

supermum4

thanks very much everyone i thought the machanic was rubbish conor so your advice is much appreciated i have now booked the car in for monday morning at a different garage, but he still says it may cost me a lot just for him to just find the problem! he will ring me before any costs are incurred if he tells me that he thinks its the gasket but it will cost me x amount to confirm, i will ask him if he has done a sniffer test and then he may think i know what im talking about and won't try to rip me off hopefully conor if you live in the north east and you have any spare time on your hands this afternoon and you fancy looking at my gasket please feel free, thanks again

Conor_3

I live in East Yorks but sadly due to a completely shot back, I can't.

Sniffer test is at most an hours labour, if that's their minimum charge as it takes about 10 minutes to do although some will also do a compression test instead/as well which takes slightly longer but still under an hour. You can even buy some stuff from your local Motor Factors to do the test yourself. You stick it in the expansion tank and it changes the colour of the coolant if there's a problem.

What does then take the time is if the test comes back positive as you then have to strip the engine down and then inspect everything to find out where the problem is and what caused it in the first place so that's at least a couple of hours.

oldagetraveller

Totally irrelevant I know but the first time I saw this particular model of Toyota I had to double check. I thought it was a Toyota Enema!

supermum4

Hi everyone took car to different garage today and had a complete waste of time! waited for 45 mins to be told that he couldn't find anything wrong with the car arh! told him that its over heating so somethings wrong he said my head gasket could be on its way out i asked if the radiator was ok and he said i think so! i asked him if he could do the test on the expansion tank just to check and he looked puzzled and told me to take it to the main toyota dealer! do these people not want my money!! conor could you tell me what you call the stuff that you put into the expansion tank as i went to halfords but they didn't know what i was talking about. thanks again for all the advice i have received on this site i just wish i could get my car sorted out thanks again guys.

Conor_3

Here you go...

http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?productID=8682&frostProductName=Block%20Tester

£39.50.

supermum4

Hi thanks conor, i have been reading another post about HGV drivers and i think they are great keep up the good work when your back gets better. thanks again for this link i have now ordered one.