Felt and heard a rattling noise as I pushed the accelerator down. Got to top of traffic lights. Engine smoking. On red so thought I would turn off the engine for a couple of mins. Go green - wouldn't start. AA arrived an hour later. Car now starts as cooled down. Drove it round the corner to a petrol station. No coolant. AA man adds coolant but leaking from thermostat housing at bottom of engine. AA man adds some pressure gauge thingy to coolant tank - adds pressure, coolant leaking fast, pressure rising, car temp rising after few mins, heater matrix pipes shear off in front of our eyes!
So the nice AA man who use to be a mechanic is 99% sure that the head gasket is leaking as I drove it a couple of miles I may have damaged the cylinder heads.
So there is a few hours labour to change head gasket, check the cylinder (may need skimming), replace the heater matrix and hosing, replace the thermostat housing and hosing. The back tyres both need replacing - on the limit plus side wall damage. The rear arches are so corroded that I had to hide it with masking tape on the last MOT. The heater valve has packed up but that maybe connected to the lack of coolant prob. Both back bushes were done last year and the cam belt was changed on 75k. It's now done over 150k miles. Without these repairs and with bad rust it's probably not worth much more than £400.
So I think my cat died! Definitely?
So the nice AA man who use to be a mechanic is 99% sure that the head gasket is leaking as I drove it a couple of miles I may have damaged the cylinder heads.
So there is a few hours labour to change head gasket, check the cylinder (may need skimming), replace the heater matrix and hosing, replace the thermostat housing and hosing. The back tyres both need replacing - on the limit plus side wall damage. The rear arches are so corroded that I had to hide it with masking tape on the last MOT. The heater valve has packed up but that maybe connected to the lack of coolant prob. Both back bushes were done last year and the cam belt was changed on 75k. It's now done over 150k miles. Without these repairs and with bad rust it's probably not worth much more than £400.
So I think my cat died! Definitely?