AdamMaguire
New member
Hey all.
I have a 2001 Mk2 Punto, ~90k miles on the clock.
In the past few months it has started behaving a bit strangely and (having read around) I'm now starting to worry that it may be a head gasket issue. I'm hoping someone here might be able to help me find what and where the fault is.
The first issue was the odd bit of power drop during the winter, where the car's power would suddenly drop down to a crawl before picking back up to normal. This would only happen from time to time and only in the first few minutes after starting the car - whenever it did happen it would be over in a few seconds. It also hasn't happened since the weather started getting a bit warmer.
More recently, however, I have noticed the car sometimes has a rougher idle than normal. Again, this is only from time to time and it's nothing major, but when it happens there's definitely a noticeable amount of 'chug' when idling.
Coupled with this, I've noticed the car going through oil at a faster pace than I'd have expected (though I'm not sure how long you should expect oil to last on a 12 year old car... I reckon I topped the oil up last around 6 weeks ago and the marker now shows it just over half full) - coolant levels seem to be dropping quicker than I'd like too... probably at a similar rate to the oil, if not faster.
All of this is coupled with a seeming drop in fuel efficiency in recent months.
That being said, there's no sign of any creamy substance in the oil or, from what I can see, the coolant. The car's thermometer has spiked from time to time but when that happens I refill the coolant and it behaves again.
So does this sound like the head gasket? Or is it a mixture of old age and perhaps a water pump problem?
Is there a way for me to test or would I need a mechanic to tell me for certain?
Thanks in advance!
I have a 2001 Mk2 Punto, ~90k miles on the clock.
In the past few months it has started behaving a bit strangely and (having read around) I'm now starting to worry that it may be a head gasket issue. I'm hoping someone here might be able to help me find what and where the fault is.
The first issue was the odd bit of power drop during the winter, where the car's power would suddenly drop down to a crawl before picking back up to normal. This would only happen from time to time and only in the first few minutes after starting the car - whenever it did happen it would be over in a few seconds. It also hasn't happened since the weather started getting a bit warmer.
More recently, however, I have noticed the car sometimes has a rougher idle than normal. Again, this is only from time to time and it's nothing major, but when it happens there's definitely a noticeable amount of 'chug' when idling.
Coupled with this, I've noticed the car going through oil at a faster pace than I'd have expected (though I'm not sure how long you should expect oil to last on a 12 year old car... I reckon I topped the oil up last around 6 weeks ago and the marker now shows it just over half full) - coolant levels seem to be dropping quicker than I'd like too... probably at a similar rate to the oil, if not faster.
All of this is coupled with a seeming drop in fuel efficiency in recent months.
That being said, there's no sign of any creamy substance in the oil or, from what I can see, the coolant. The car's thermometer has spiked from time to time but when that happens I refill the coolant and it behaves again.
So does this sound like the head gasket? Or is it a mixture of old age and perhaps a water pump problem?
Is there a way for me to test or would I need a mechanic to tell me for certain?
Thanks in advance!
