Good evening, 

I have a ford smax 2014 1.6tdci,  so I have been issues with heating and found coolant level low and also oil in water, so had new oil cooler fitted and was told pressure in coolant bottle. And the garage have said suspected head gasket as keeps bubbling in coolant bottle. The heating is now work and getting warm inside vehicle.  Is this a common issue for head gasket on these models?

Any help appreciated 

Thanks

Mike

Hi,

It's not common on these, but does happen occasionally.

I have noticed this morning the radiator pipes are not hot say Luke warm if that could that be blocked radiator cause it to pressurising?

thermostat stuck shut? also the expansion caps go bad and stop releasing pressure. 

Best option is to use a CO2 sniff tester.  That will show whether there's exhaust in the cooling system or not.  If there is, it's either headgasket, cracked head or EGR cooler.

With cold outdoor temps I wouldn't expect the radiator and pipes to feel hot on short journeys on a diesel.

I use a sniff test, and came back ok. What i have noticed is temp gauge get to temp and then will drop back off to cold while still driving. But the radiator doesn't feel very hot after 1hr driving. 

The thermostat has been replaced ,.

Thanks for the replies 

It's not the headgasket of the sniff test came back clear.

Bubbling in the bottle doesn't necessarily mean excess pressure, usually means not enough pressure.  The cap holds around 1.5 bar to increase the boiling point.  From the extra info I now suspect either a faulty cap or a cracked reservoir.

Update,

I have replaced my water pump and flush coolant system to make sure no blockage. I am,still losing coolant about a litre every w days no visible sign of coolant leaking. Even those it get hot inside the car. Tonight I took coolant cap of and started from cold to run it incase there any air system instead it started bubbling out of coolant bottle. Could this be a egr cooler?

I do have a video but can't seem to upload it.

Thanks

13 hours ago, Michael 11 said:

Update,

I have replaced my water pump and flush coolant system to make sure no blockage. I am,still losing coolant about a litre every w days no visible sign of coolant leaking. Even those it get hot inside the car. Tonight I took coolant cap of and started from cold to run it incase there any air system instead it started bubbling out of coolant bottle. Could this be a egr cooler?

I do have a video but can't seem to upload it.

Thanks

The cap holds pressure on the system. It will bubble out without the cap holding pressure.

It's not the EGR cooler if the sniff test came back clear.

So i have put cap on and it bubbles inside with cap on to.

Thanks

15 minutes ago, Michael 11 said:

So i have put cap on and it bubbles inside with cap on to.

Thanks

I still suspect a faulty cap or a cracked reservoir. Those are the parts I would have changed before the waterpump. Cheap and easy and a very common fault on Fords.

If you want to upload the video, you can upload it to YouTube first and then link it over here.

So update, I did another pressure test all was ok, so carried out another sniff test and it changed colour so the head gasket had failed. So currently have it strip down to replace head gasket and getting head all checked and skimmed.

Thanks for all replies and advise guys.