If you want to find out whether its the head gasket without taking it to a garage as they will say yes for the money call the aa or rac if your with them and just say your car is overheating or somthing and your worried .

i have a 1.2 8v and the same happens to me. no loss of water or anything and its just been serviced so i think it is just condensation but i was worried too cos everyone on hear just assumes its the headgasket

Mine was doing this when it was cold and I do 7 miles to work...as its warmed up its totally vanished. Condensation...

That is a bit of a long drive from here in N.I!!

go for a long drive pay a vist to demon tweaks or pvd or somthing thats you can get to and buy stuff you been meaning to get for your car if yoive been out for an hr or so driving cheak every thing agin that will tell you where the problem is

Stop poodling around at 30mph, get some REAL MANS HEAT into that engine bay! SMOKE IT BABY!!!

matt thats just the heater matrix, nothing to do with the head gasket! If you are not losing any water from your expansion tank, then your headgasket is fine. Its when you get oil in the expansion tank that you start to worry!

dave

also when u start the car up first thing in the mornin listen out for the sound of running water inside the car. pretty easy to hear

i know jack bout engins.
what exactly is the head gasket?

mate check if ur lossing coolant, creamy deposits (obvious) and check for white smoke and condensation form the exhaust even when warm. Dont eva drive the car with head gasket gone cos u will pay for it :!

may end up with cracked cylinder head or even worse... i learnt the hard way

also go to a normal garrage and ask for them do do a sniffer test which basically checks if u got exhaust fumes in ur expansion tank cos then u wull know :)

hope this helps

fad

same on mine mate, been like that for months now but not showin ne of the other symptoms of head gasket gone, i do short journeys too but every now and then i do some long motorway drivin then it goes away, mines a 1.2 8v too

Best thing to do is wait for more symptons of a Head Gasket going.
Then you know you aint gonna waste money having it done.

yeah i only do short journeys and when i look in the filler cap u can actually see moisture on teh cloth when i clean out the goo.

Doesn't overheat
Nothing on the dipstick
WTF is power on a 1.2 8v lol!!

Yeh, a lot of the time if you take it to a garage, and you see a creamy mayo substance (oo-eer) on the filler cap, they will say head gasket because they get the money...but leave it be,
does the car overheat?
does the dipstick also show creamy stuff?
does the car loose any power and does it drive normal?

if it DOES have any of the above symptons, then it probably will be head gasket, if not - as cybermoney said - condensation.

Any other symptoms? Oily coolant? mayo on dipstick? Probably just condensation because you are driving too many short journeys. Give it a spank up the motorway.

dave

:D think you should try washing mate :D

Is it normal to get a bit of creamy gunge in the head gasket?