A couple of questions I'd like your help with:-
1.8 K-series engine in 2004 Gaylander, had the head gasket repaired last year, but now starting to see coolant loss again.
Drives around no problem at all.
Generally, it goes from max to min over the space of about 2 weeks.
There are fine cracks in the top of the coolant reservoir, but tbh these have always been there from before the CHG went last time.
Haven't seen any signs of coolant on the ground underneath the engine like there were last time.
Temperature gauge does not register overheating, but then again it didn't last time either.
My questions are:
If the head gasket has gone again, could this be caused by damage to the engine as a whole caused by previous failures? If so, I don't see the point in replacing the HG if it's just going to go every time.
Is it common to have multiple head gasket failures over time? Naively I thought that one you had had it repaired once, that was it for good!
Could the cracks in the coolant reservoir allow enough coolant vapour to escape to account for the coolant loss?
Can anyone post a picture of what the 'gunk' in the oil looks like when the head gasket fails? My oil looks fine to me, but then I don't know what I'm looking for.
Other threads have pointed to other causes of coolant loss (O ring failure etc) so I'm hoping it's one of these. The trouble is it seems to me that if you take a freelander into a garage with coolant loss then they automatically assume it's head hasket failue (rightly in most cases probably).
Thanks