Head gasket woes

R

Redmex

Member
Anyone else bought a car and like myself maybe too trusting? Looking to put the car on the road this month coming but not really mechanically minded the checks I never did when buying look like they are coming back to haunt me
My dad was a mechanic and I'm guessing first thing to look at would be either the oil filler cap or dip stick or get a torch and get down on the ground with a torch. I've found milky yuk under the cap and the dipstick is not looking how it should, so hard to pull out
Glad I never paid the asking price but could be an expensive repair/ engine swop
I'm not going to do the long running pbondar thread naming anyone as they are/were on here but I would advice anyone buying take a mechanic along with you. Front struts very badly rusted I can accept although I'd have thought need changed for MOT but the previous owner must know about the engine
It goes great and not overheating but the telltale signs along with oil and maybe water on the drip tray is giving me big concerns
I'm in the building trade and see the equivalent people buying houses with dodgy workmanship/ major faults ,
Just taught me a lesson you can trust very few
 
I'd be surprised if you had a head gasket issue to be fair.

Mayo on the oil filler cap may well be due to the car not getting used that much and the engine not getting properly warmed up when it was used, espcecially as it drives well and isn't overheating.

Oil on the undertray may well be from a leaking cam-cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, the CCV installation or a combination of those, which aren't unusual issues on Z4s.

Hopefully it won't be too serious. :thumbsup:
 
As Mr Tidy also alludes to, I think you’re jumping to some over-dramatic conclusions.
Mayo in the filler cap and a gummed up dipstick are classic signs of condensation buildup due to the engine not getting up to optimum operating temperature, i.e. short journeys.

What engine and mileage?
If M54 and over 70k miles you almost certainly need to replace the camcover gasket as that’s the prime culprit for oil leaks, closely followed by the oil filter housing gasket (not the oil filler cap gasket).

Replace the ccv system with the cold climate version from Febi as it has thicker lagging on the pipework which should better prevent condensation buildup in the future.
 
Agree with the two post above.
If you had a head gasket leak, you'd also be using up coolant and have white exhaust smoke.
 
You haven't said what engine, but if the M54 then I agree with everything said above.
I also found the dipstick quite hard to remove the first time, until I discovered it's a feature, with the o-ring at the top holding it in fairly tight.

With regard to the front struts, rust on the outer casing is inevitable with time/age, but will rarely structurally affect the strut itself.
An MOT tester is basically restricted to saying whether it is leaking or not. If it is all dry and not noticeably deformed, or sagging, then it'll pass.
I'm sure though that if they are the originals they will be in need of changing.
So far in the last 6 months I've changed one set of fronts and two sets of rears, on 53 and 04 plate cars. All looked to be the originals and not a single one actually functioned as it should any more. You could place the piston wherever you wanted, without any effort and it just stayed there. So on a car of that age, if the shocks look like the originals you should be factoring in a change anyway.
I picked up a set of front and rear Sachs standard replacements, plus bump stops, covers and all four Lemforder top mounts for a shade under £400 from Autodoc.
 
I'm not too concerned about the struts no leakage that I can see but major rust
With the synthetic good oils we use nowadays I've always had a nice how it should look dipstick no pun intended
I've swopped insurance from my 2.0 over and tax it for a month see how it goes and what needs doing
I'm sure it is the m54 engine as it's an 04 3.0, I was just a bit deflated last night
Anyway thanks for the replies and here's hoping it may not be as bad as I'm thinking
I can't fault my 4cyl Z4 MOT cost £40 no advisory and drives great
 
Redmex said:
I'm not too concerned about the struts no leakage that I can see but major rust
Click to expand...
Well see how it drives for a while, but you may have missed my point regarding the struts.
If they're that rusty they are potentially originals and regardless of lack of leaks are quite possibly knackered.
 
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