Townace 2008

Aszee · June 2, 2017

Hi All, I found this forum very useful, I brought a 2008 townace, petrol, recently (my first vehicle in SL), and the problem is tempreture overheats, mechanic said gasket lost its strength due to overheat running & need to be replaced. Since I have no much idea about this, would appreciate your valuable comments.

Davy · June 2, 2017

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on the TownAce.

There might be two issues here. The first issue is your engine overheating. The second one is the consequence of running with an overheating engine - the gasket leak. You need to address both issues at once because if you only replace the gasket without addressing the overheating issue, your engine will run hot again and blow the new gasket as well. This might not be the case, but a possibility.

Do you have any of the following symptoms:

1. Does the vehicle lose coolant?

2. Do you see an oily residue floating on coolant in the expansion tank or the radiator?

3. Do you see white smoke from the exhaust?

if the answer is "yes" to any or all questions above, you should get your gasket replaced. It will require dismantling the valve body of your engine, but should be a pretty straightforward repair.

The overheating might be due to the gasket leak itself, but you need to make sure if your cooling fan(s) operate properly. Get them checked and keep an eye on the temperature gauge to see if it stays normal a few hundred kilometres after the repair.

The Stig · June 2, 2017

There is no 100% accurate way of testing if the gasket but you can check the following.

Take off the radiator cap when the engine is cool and start the engine and see if you get any bubbles.

Do a compression test on all 4 cylinders.

Sometimes when the engine is revved high you can see a little bit of smoke /water vapor coming from the engine arround the gasket area.

Also open the oil filler cap and see if there is any water floating around.

Aszee · June 2, 2017

On 6/2/2017 at 2:34 AM, Davy said:

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on the TownAce.

There might be two issues here. The first issue is your engine overheating. The second one is the consequence of running with an overheating engine - the gasket leak. You need to address both issues at once because if you only replace the gasket without addressing the overheating issue, your engine will run hot again and blow the new gasket as well. This might not be the case, but a possibility.

Do you have any of the following symptoms:

1. Does the vehicle lose coolant?

2. Do you see an oily residue floating on coolant in the expansion tank or the radiator?

3. Do you see white smoke from the exhaust?

if the answer is "yes" to any or all questions above, you should get your gasket replaced. It will require dismantling the valve body of your engine, but should be a pretty straightforward repair.

The overheating might be due to the gasket leak itself, but you need to make sure if your cooling fan(s) operate properly. Get them checked and keep an eye on the temperature gauge to see if it stays normal a few hundred kilometres after the repair.

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Many thanks for your advice, mechanic replaced the gasket, however problem not solved, I encountered all 3 symptoms immediate after repair during test, mechanic said engine needs to be dismantle and cylinder overhaul is required, cooling fan works fine. Any suggestions please. Thanks again

Aszee · June 2, 2017

On 6/2/2017 at 3:55 AM, The Stig said:

There is no 100% accurate way of testing if the gasket but you can check the following.

Take off the radiator cap when the engine is cool and start the engine and see if you get any bubbles.

Do a compression test on all 4 cylinders.

Sometimes when the engine is revved high you can see a little bit of smoke /water vapor coming from the engine arround the gasket area.

Also open the oil filler cap and see if there is any water floating around.

Expand

Thanks. And appreciate your feedback.

Davy · June 2, 2017

On 6/2/2017 at 2:49 PM, Aszee said:

Many thanks for your advice, mechanic replaced the gasket, however problem not solved, I encountered all 3 symptoms immediate after repair during test, mechanic said engine needs to be dismantle and cylinder overhaul is required, cooling fan works fine. Any suggestions please. Thanks again

Expand

My first suggestion would be to find a different competent mechanic. This guy doesn't seem to know how to do a simple gasket replacement and now giving excuses to rip more money off you by hiding the fact that he messed up.

After gasket replacement, was the cooling system fully drained, flushed and refilled? This needs to be done to remove oil in the cooling system. Depending on the extent of the leak, an engine oil flush and refill also needs to be done.

On a related note, make sure the water pump is working properly and not leaking. You can check if the water pump is working by letting the car reach operating temperature and squeezing the top radiator hose with your fingers (be careful as the hose will be hot) and feeling the pressure within the hose as you rev the engine. If you can feel the pressure increase, this indicates proper operation of the water pump and thermostat valve. All in all, your cooling system needs to be checked fully.