head gasket?

[mak]

Hi all just posting for a freind in need if you like, he has a 99 tdi5 discovery and the symptems are presurised cooling system from cold (as in next morning take the cap of the expansion bottle and there's a lot of presure there) loosing a little water ( half a litre every 100 miles) and the heater sometimes blows cold, the car runs fine but sometimes the temp gauge drops quiet a lot (it never over heats) errrrrrrr thats all i've got to go on really o! and there's no water in the oil as to yet. Its just with these symptoms he's been told it could be the head gasket but before he stripes it down i just thought i'd ask on hear, cheer's chaps.

[GreenLandy]

Sounds like the head gasket . IIRC the Td5 head is coated and might not be able to be skimmed fingers crossed I'm wrong.

[GLpinxit]

I understand that some head gaskets have been known to fail after around 130K. A pressure test on the system will show if it is something else (heater matrix or hoses, etc) but clearly something is amiss so if pressure test shows nothing else then assume gasket.

[mak]

thanks for the info chaps.

[Crazy Fool]

same question has appeared in this months LRO magazine, those experts also said head gasket!