Citroen Berlingo Died On Me Quite Spectacularly Today.

[rabbikrustofski]

Hi, I have a Citroen Berlingo that died on me quite spectacularly today. All of a sudden the temps went up and the engine warning light came on. When looking under the bonnet I discovered no oil in the engine - I checked it the other day and the oil level was fine - but when I checked the radiator I found it full of oil? Anyone got any ideas?
Tia
Martin

[gingejbee]

Cylinder head gasket gone, big-time. Other damage too, with no oil in the sump.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/How-Serious-Can-a-Blown-Head-Gasket-Be-/10000000177633340/g.html

[gingejbee]

....or a cracked cylinder head. Either way....not good!

[tonyav]

Yep, very serious. Probably terminal.

[Buenchico]

As a guide to what it might cost you to put things right:

5 or 6 years ago the head gasket failed on my car. (Escort, 1.6 Zetec). As I was delivering car parts in those days, I had plenty of opportunity to ask lots of garages (as I called on them in the course of my job) how much they thought it would cost to fix it. The rough estimates I got (including VAT) were in the region of £700 to £1000, although my friendly local garage actually did the job for around £500.

So that's probably the very cheapest that you could get away with. However, if there's additional damage as well, it could work out quite a bit dearer. If the car's still worth repairing though it might be best to seek out a reconditioned engine for it.

[MantaRay]

Not totally sure what type of oil cooler is fitted but there's a possibility that this has failed causing all the engine oil [under higher pressure than the coolant] to leak through to the cooling system.