After many hours of tears and self-contemplation I think I'm just about ready to face the bad news I think people are going to tell me...
I was driving back from a couple of days holiday yesterday in my 1.9 MJet Sporting when, coming up a hill about 4 miles out, I suddenly got the "Engine over heated, etc..." warning message. I parked, got out of the car and water was literally pi**ing out of the left hand side of the car. I opened the bonnet but couldnt see where it was coming from so I let it cool thinking maybe a pipe has come loose or burst and rung my road side assistance.
When they eventually turned up (3 and a half hours later) we filled the water back up, as it was totally empty, and started the car. While it was cold the car held all the water with no leaks anywhere but when it was warmed up you could actually feel flecks of water spitting in your face but neither myself or the mechanic could see where it was coming from.
We decided that the best action would be to tow the car to my local garage and let them deal with it, so we put it on the truck (which when i manoeuvred the car into position you could see a trail of water where i'd been) and took it the 200 miles back.
Sorry for the long post (I wanted to get as much detail in as possible) but can anyone allay my fears that the head gasket has gone? It really seems the most likely option to me because the water was held when the engine was cold, but on a 57 plate 20,000 mile modern engine?!?
Also, if this is the case, does this fit with some other symptoms I have been seeing? such as a drop in mpg, an increasing struggle to get the thing started and occasionally some hiccups (so slight I though i might have imagined them, which is still very possible)
I was driving back from a couple of days holiday yesterday in my 1.9 MJet Sporting when, coming up a hill about 4 miles out, I suddenly got the "Engine over heated, etc..." warning message. I parked, got out of the car and water was literally pi**ing out of the left hand side of the car. I opened the bonnet but couldnt see where it was coming from so I let it cool thinking maybe a pipe has come loose or burst and rung my road side assistance.
When they eventually turned up (3 and a half hours later) we filled the water back up, as it was totally empty, and started the car. While it was cold the car held all the water with no leaks anywhere but when it was warmed up you could actually feel flecks of water spitting in your face but neither myself or the mechanic could see where it was coming from.
We decided that the best action would be to tow the car to my local garage and let them deal with it, so we put it on the truck (which when i manoeuvred the car into position you could see a trail of water where i'd been) and took it the 200 miles back.
Sorry for the long post (I wanted to get as much detail in as possible) but can anyone allay my fears that the head gasket has gone? It really seems the most likely option to me because the water was held when the engine was cold, but on a 57 plate 20,000 mile modern engine?!?
Also, if this is the case, does this fit with some other symptoms I have been seeing? such as a drop in mpg, an increasing struggle to get the thing started and occasionally some hiccups (so slight I though i might have imagined them, which is still very possible)