Suspected Head Gasket!? Help Fast!

[Yates-Is200S]

Just purchased my lexus is200 privatly from doncaster on friday.

and everything runs sweet! millage is 90,000 which i believe isnt that high for a lexus 2001 reg.

anyway. after 2 days i thought it was abserlutly mint, but my fan had been coming on quite often butnot overheating. so i didnt think much to it.

However as it is an x reg i had my local mobile mechanic come out and just give it a once over to see if everything was ok, check levels, look for any inwanted corrosion and check the belts etc..

he told me that the presure tester was loosing pressure but only fractionally and straight away he suspected a head gasket fault as we couldnt find any leakes?

i also informed him that when i turn the car on i hear a loud rush of water which then goes away after a couple of seconds. it does however come back when i pull off in first now and agen.

Anyway the car still runs sweet and doesnt miss fire but im still suspecting head gasket or heater matrix?

what do you suggest??

He has quoted me a huge £700-800 for the gasket inc labour. which is a real kick in the teeth after i have only owned the car for a couple of days!

does anyone repair headgaskets for a reasonable cost?

[ormi]

Just purchased my lexus is200 privatly from doncaster on friday.

and everything runs sweet! millage is 90,000 which i believe isnt that high for a lexus 2001 reg.

anyway. after 2 days i thought it was abserlutly mint, but my fan had been coming on quite often butnot overheating. so i didnt think much to it.

However as it is an x reg i had my local mobile mechanic come out and just give it a once over to see if everything was ok, check levels, look for any inwanted corrosion and check the belts etc..

he told me that the presure tester was loosing pressure but only fractionally and straight away he suspected a head gasket fault as we couldnt find any leakes?

i also informed him that when i turn the car on i hear a loud rush of water which then goes away after a couple of seconds. it does however come back when i pull off in first now and agen.

Anyway the car still runs sweet and doesnt miss fire but im still suspecting head gasket or heater matrix?

what do you suggest??

He has quoted me a huge £700-800 for the gasket inc labour. which is a real kick in the teeth after i have only owned the car for a couple of days!

does anyone repair headgaskets for a reasonable cost?

have you topped up the coolant properly???their is two fill up points the radiator and the expansion bottle top up properly(ie the cap on the radiator) and keep us informed...oh also when topping up have the car running fan full heat full pointing at the screen that should get the coolant your pouring in round the system pretty fast.

the rushing noise your hearing is water rushing through the matrix. B)

[Rob]

also helps to have the car facing uphill when trying to get the air out of the heater matrix

[Yates-Is200S]

Just topped levels up in both radiator and top up bottle. black top up bottle displaying full and radiator also full.

Just turned heaters on full and pointed to the screen and the fans kept cutting in even when the engine hadnt reached a quater of its tempreture? :o

is this normal?

coolant levels didnt moove in the proccess.

???

[Yates-Is200S]

Very slight smoke floates out of the exhaust when the car is on but it is generally ok when driving.

its only minimal aswell. what i cant understand is the car hasnt over heated and levels havnt mooved. and not boiling over. ?

[rej]

I had my radiator and head gasket replaced a couple of months back. It cost me about £1100 so sounds as though the cost your getting is about right. Unfortunately the head gasket going is just expensive to sort out. I got it carried out by a private mechanic who did a decent job Lexus were asking for about £1600 !!

[Steve ( West Mids )]

You need to take it to a proper mechanic and get a gas test done on the radiator and a comression test on all cylinders.

[Yates-Is200S]

I had my radiator and head gasket replaced a couple of months back. It cost me about £1100 so sounds as though the cost your getting is about right. Unfortunately the head gasket going is just expensive to sort out. I got it carried out by a private mechanic who did a decent job Lexus were asking for about £1600 !!

rej, was your lexus doing a simular thing to mine? and also how long can i drive it for with a suspected Head Gasket failure??

[Yates-Is200S]

the mechanic i had just put his pressure tester on the rad and pumped it up to 15. and it held there for about 6 or 7 seconds and then really really slowly started to drop then it would stop again and slowly drop. after 3-4 mins it went down to 11

is this the correct method ?

i am going to another mechanic tommorow who has told me that he has a special pressure tester which turns green if the gasket has gone. if not it will be something else.

he then told me to turn the engine over whilst pressure tester was still attatched and the compression went up and up and up. and he said that it shouldnt go up, so it couldnt hold a stabble pressure, but i didnt understand that because if it just went up and up and up surely the coolant would ***** outr evrywhere. tbh i dont really think he knew much about jap engines.

[rej]

My scenario was different to yours. I had a leak in my radiator which eventually emptied out this caused the engine to overheat. The gasket blew mixing the coolant and oil !!! All in all a disaster. Once the oil and coolant mix you dont have long literally minutes before the engine just stops. How long have you got till this point dont try and find out is my opinion.

I had engine failure and called the AA as I didnt have a clue what had happened. The good thing with them is that 99% of the time they will get the exact cause of the problem and advise accordingly. You may want to give them a call and get a free check up !

[James Marks]

Have you got the air conditioning on?, because that will make one of the cooling fans kick in on many cars if it's not moving much - can't remember if the IS is like that though. Get your mechanic to check for exhaust gas in the coolant (I think there's a chemical you can add that does this) before definitely splashing all that cash out on an unconfirmed head gasket failure as well. And yes, IS's do produce a lot of steam from the exhaust anyway, especially now that mornings are starting to get colder and damper.

[MECAMIKE]

steves got it! They will test the coolant with a chemical.If it contains exhaust gases,the solution changes colour.Sounds like your mechanics trying to mug you off if hasnt done the basics!It could be something as stupid as a partially jammed thermastat or electrical senser fault.

[Yates-Is200S]

Thanks mike and steve.

So would the standard pressure test that my mechanic did have done any harm to the engine? or put any wrong pressures in the engine?

as he was pumping the air into the cooling system and then he told me to turn the engine on..?? or would this pressure just have gone into the combustion chamber and exited out of the exhaust?

[MECAMIKE]

Sorry,i started to write that last one before you said about pressure test! Slow i know! Il hold judgement. get it checked though!

[Yates-Is200S]

Hi all, turns out there is nothing to worry about. touch wood.

Just taken it to a proper mechanic who has dealt with toyotas on a number of occasions.

He used a modern pressure tester where it sences gases in the rad.

He tested it in the rad, and the oil cap. and nothing! the liquid never changed colour. (it stayed blue)

so he has told me that it isnt a head gasket and that it may be a hairline leak somwhere along the way or maybe a slight blockage in the rad.

He also said if i am still loosing coolant he will fill my rad up with illuminous water that under UV LIGHT turns bright yellow so it is clear where the leak is.

overall a cracking mechanic who is obviously up to date with his equipment!

the worry is over! lol for now ;)

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Good news :)

So are you going to go back to your mobile mechanic and tell him?

[Yates-Is200S]

cant be bothered to be fair. lol. can be arsed waisting my time trying to get hold of him to tell him. let him think its gone, it wont make any difference to me.

[MECAMIKE]

Thats good to hear mate,thought it be something stupid,rekon the mobile mechanic needs a slap!

[Yates-Is200S]

Lol ino... although water level has dropped a tiny bit still, but im hoping it will just be a hairline fracture in one of the pipes that is dripping. i will keep running it for a few weeks and see how she goes but there have been no strange gases sensed by the gas test. so thats good.

the proper mechanic who i went to see today said he thought it was a rare tale to be heard for a jap lexus engine to have head gasket failure at 90,000 miles :o lol

[dazz32]

Glad to hear its not a headgasket problem matey...The IS200 has long life coolant and is red and if there was a leak in the system you would see where the coolant has leaked because it will leave a dry pink residue by,on or near the leak....

Also if the gasket had gone im guessing you would of had mayonaise type stuff on the engine filler cap and the rad cap...... :)

[Yates-Is200S]

thats a point dazz. its just running on water at the moment. i need to get sum antifreeze in before the frosty nights start coming. where can i get the long life coolant from mate? at a reasonable price? apart from eBay

[Yates-Is200S]

is it the same as the toyota long life?? in the black bottle, red cap??

[kam05]

You can get some Toyota long-life coolant (Red stuff) from Lexus/Toyota for about £20 for 5 litres.

Does your car have any coolant in atm? From what you are saying it doesn't- I'd flush out the water and put in some Toyota coolant pronto because the water can freeze (in the cold) and also I have heard that water can also cause rust to form in the engine block.

[Yates-Is200S]

whats the best way to drain it and also do you have to represurise the cooling system?

[kam05]

You can drain the old water/coolant by un-doing the draining tap on the radiator (its on the bottom of the radiator but I can't remember if its on the left handside or the right handside).