My Brothers car had done exactly that. Ended up being a slipped liner letting the coolant go. You might be able to see with a scope into each cylinder if one has moved.

Throttle body gasket, I think.

Yes! that ****** thing under the throttle body that leaks coolant, often found disconnected. Under 1 hour job to lift the plenum cover, cut and fit gasket, refit.

Should really update this!

Put it in for what we thought was a small repair and it is now sat waiting for the mechanics to get round to it as it is much worse than we originally thought!

The heads have to come off before we will even know the extent of the damage.

It seems we were sold a bad one! probably bodged up with chemi weld to get it through the sale. I couldn't do that to someone else so we will get it repaired and hope it isn't too expensive. At least we will know what we have then!

Dan is not a happy soul!

Didn't expect to hear so soon but it turns out it's just the gasket. So not cheap but a big sigh of relief!

Its funny I pulled mine off at 140,000 sure that it would be buggered and it was fine...I even bought a new one just in case...now I have a good spare and a new one on. The gaskets might weep at times, but the plate in mine was like new. The right coolant changed regularly might be the key.

Cheers

Quote for repair $2169.00

Not happy at being had by the seller (assuming they knew) but pleased with the repairers. They have been straight with us all along and don't seem to be unreasonable in either their assessmemt or quote. Also a pleasure to deal with.