Thread: Low coolant alarm Q

First indication of head gasket failure on td5?
I put up with the Enginesaver probe oil fouling for weeks. Remove, clean and repeat. Eventually became a morse code as gas bubbles grew in size and passed by the probe. Coolant level rose slightly, hoses under pressure and gas present at top hose bleed point. Car taken off road for repair at this point.
This was the well documented "plastic head dowels-head moves-combustion gases into coolant circuit" issue. I replaced the head gasket using steel dowels. Problem has not recurred in over 100,000km of severe usage (chip, VNT etc.).
Plenty of info on this forum on how to undertake fix or recommended mechanics. Ignoring it will harm the rest of cooling system in time as oil degrades rubber parts and pressure weakens radiator and coolant reservoir.
If your vehicle is V8 someone else might suggest other possibilities.

Good luck, Jason.

Originally Posted by Resection

First indication of head gasket failure on td5?
I put up with the Enginesaver probe oil fouling for weeks. Remove, clean and repeat. Eventually became a morse code as gas bubbles grew in size and passed by the probe. Coolant level rose slightly, hoses under pressure and gas present at top hose bleed point. Car taken off road for repair at this point.
This was the well documented "plastic head dowels-head moves-combustion gases into coolant circuit" issue. I replaced the head gasket using steel dowels. Problem has not recurred in over 100,000km of severe usage (chip, VNT etc.).
Plenty of info on this forum on how to undertake fix or recommended mechanics. Ignoring it will harm the rest of cooling system in time as oil degrades rubber parts and pressure weakens radiator and coolant reservoir.
If your vehicle is V8 someone else might suggest other possibilities.

Good luck, Jason.

Thanks for the reply Jason. I hope it's not a HG problem . How would I check to see if this may be the case? It is a TD5 by the way & has only done 195000 kms. Thanks mate.

When my played up like this it turned out to be the crimp connector on the wire so I would start by changing that first, if it’s the head gasket you would be getting bubbles in the water so you should have air in the system when you remove the probe.
Start with the simple things first.