Oil in airbox!? & Loosing coolant rapidly

[Ermaganish1996]

Hello there every one, My sister recently brought a Renault Clio II 2002 1.2L, It had its share of problems, first off was the sturts and springs at the back needed replacement, now we’ve come to the problem that the car has quite alite of oil in the air box, the last filter was covered quite abit in oil and it’s loosing about 2 quarts of coolant per month… :dry:

I think that the PCV valve is clogged up or something cause it seems to be a known problem with 1.2 Clio’s, tho does any one know where the valve is located so I can take it out and clean it? :unsure:

And as for the coolant leak, I need to be adding about 2 quarts of coolant per month as the level just drops accordingly as to how many KM’s I do.

I suspect a blown head-gasket but the car runs fine on all four cylinders, i am kind off just really really confused as to where it’s leaking coolant.. :unsure: (I did a pressure test on the cooling system and didn’t loose any pressure)

Attachments are pictures of just how much oil is in there, If you don’t see them, tell me and i’ll send links.

Attachments:

• oljailuftboxen.jpg
• oljailuftboxen2.jpg

Topic

[Mark]

Hi there! i hate to say it mate but sounds like head gasket. Have you had any problems with over heating? have a look under the oil filler cap for contaminated oil (looks like mayo) but to lose that much coolant without a crack in the rad or pipe and to have oil in the airbox…head gasket

[dave]

+1 on blown head gasket. came to this conclusion just based on the title of the thread.

[Mark]

I have owned 6 french cars..my advice is stay away. they are cheap for a reason..held together with spit and tissue! cant stress enough (especially with frenchies) regular oil and filter changes!

[Ermaganish1996]

@Bomber

The car has never really had any problems with overheating

I did check the oil fill hole and it has some Coffe+milk looking substence but it only is at the top, not in the oil itself ( my car-repair teacher told me thats result of coldstarts and barely letting the car getting hot enough, idk tho?)

I do also belive in a possible gasket leak since when I jacked the car up on a lift I could see some damp-ness on the first cylinder ( i can take a picture tomorrow ) I am also gonna take a compression test aswell to confirm my suspicions..

Picture; http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/165428_548579188495629_717568576_n.jpg

[Ermaganish1996]

I actually own a french car for myself, I’ve had it for 8 years soon and it’s never been giving me any problems..

Also funny thing; I brought my car for quite the money back in the day, tho now you can buy a mercedes brand new for that same price, lol!

Also as for the renault, the timing belt is due in about 1500KMS , i dunno if i should tell my sister to sell it and buy another car… but if she does that she might but a even WORSE car that has twice the problems…

” The cheapest car you can have is a taxi , you don’t need to worry about any problems after the ride. ” 😛

[Mark]

It defiantly sounds to me like head gasket failure. All the symptoms are there. Granted my 205gti did last for 12 years before giving me problems. I do like French hot hatches. Just stay away from modern cars…their rigged to blow! It may appear like you are getting a great deal on a brand new car..little do you know that in a few years time, just after the warrantee expires parts start to fail and ur forced to pay out. Pressure test it, but I would bet my months wages it’s head gasket. Relatively easy to replace on the 1.2 Clio. Just depends where u get the head skimmed.

[Mark]

Also, I was changing the timing belt on my girlfriends citroen c2 1.1 the other day and noticed the expansion tank was full of residue, so was the air box. She had no problems with the running of the car but it was head gasket. Gasket replaced, had the head skimmed, new water pump and timing belt and she’s good as new…ish. Her 1.4 Clio had head gasket failure too. Let me know what you find and what you decide to do. Depending on the value of the car it may be worth just getting it sorted rather than hunt down a new motor. All the best mate.

[Darren]

based on everything you’ve said and the pics you’ve posted, definitely sounds and looks like a blown head gasket is the culprit.

[Ermaganish1996]

I did the compression test today, I got kindoff chocked tho cause ALL the four cylinders shows the same in the compression test, About 14.5 BAR / KG/cm2 (+/- ~ 0.2 bar)

I tho had a hard time to get cylinder four spark plug out, it had alot of carbon s*** on it so i ran the engine to opperating temrateures before taking off the sparkplugs, it did work eventually

But yeah, Dry test = 14.5 BAR in all the cylinders, So it’s not the head gasket that is loosing coolant, The car DOES has a auxillary heater and it might one of thoes types that heat up the coolant water instead of the block, it could be one of thoes that the seal has gone bad on. Tho, I am quite happy from the results off today.

As for the PCV valve, I cleaned out the oil and valve so now it hopefully should not get any more oil in airbox..

http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/935761_558979544122260_1071173291_n.jpg

http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/528239_558979324122282_83883931_n.jpg

http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/922941_558979554122259_128232319_n.jpg

(sometimes the attatchements doesn’t work at all so i link the pics aswell)

[Mark]

Well I guess all you can do is keep running the car till she dies. I’m still sticking to head gasket.

[clay rutledge]

I would put my money on a head gasket being blown…. also be sure to have thed checked do not put it back on and have the same problem .. the head could have a crack and no way of knowing unless you get it checked

[Author]

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