Vauxhall Astra 52 - headgasket?

[Luke M]

hi all,

after some help with my mums astra, its a 1.6 petrol on a 52 plate, done about 30k ish (cant remember!) cars only used for short runs so does alot of stopping and starting. getting a longer run about once a month.

checking the oil today and found a browny yellow substance on the underneath of the filler cap, i thought headgasket at first, however there is no water loss, only oil loss.

looked at the spark plugs, 1+2 are fine, brownly colour to them, however 3 and 4, are caked in a white powder, quite severe on 3 than 4. haynes for the cinq says thats either valve seals of piston rings.

i think its too much of a coincidence for valves to go in two cylinders at the same time, so could it be the HG between 3 + 4?

i dont know my vauxhalls at all so any advice would be brilliant!

Luke

 

[jug]

a white powder shows that those plugs are covered in ash, which sugests those cylinders are burning oil. a compression test should show those cylinders have slightly lower compression. you could do a wet compression test next to find out if the oil is entering the cylinder at the piston rings or at the valve stem oil seal. either way you cant do much about it unless you want to get your hands dirty. it isnt really a problem, but it means you need to keep the oil level topped up and replace or at least clean the plugs regularly.

the mayo under the oil filler cap is normal on cars that only do short journeys, the oil never gets a chance to dry out. take it for a god run to heat it up, then add some engine flush to the oil, then run at fast idle for 10-15mins, then drian oil and replace oil filter, then refill with good quality oil.