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#1291534 05/30/05 06:08 PM
Joined: May 2005
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It takes about 2 months and I have to refill water in reservoir of radiator. Do I have a leak or is this normal? How do I know if any is getting in my engine. When water level is low, also my car idles rougher atleast for the first few minutes of starting.

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Head gasket...exact description anyway! Leaks down into the cylinder and causes the rough running on start up, then clears up as it gets warm. Take out your plugs and if they are sooty white, thats the anti-freeze. Fix it now or its only going to get worse and cause more problems. I would smell the exhaust on start up and you should smell the antifreeze. Get your car in and get a rad pressure test to confirm the leak.

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How many hours labour for replacing head gasket. If the leak is so gradual, will a radiator pressure test find such a small leak? I will smell for antifreeze at next morning start of engine.

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check your oil dipstick. with a blown gasket, coolant tends to leak into the oil. it will read higher and might have some 'creamy' looking substance mixed with the oil...which is coolant.

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My oil looks fine. I went for oil change yesterday and the mechanic didn't think there was any water in the oil. And he didn't visually see any leaks. Any other suggestions?
Thanks.

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I had O2 sensor replaced with non factory one. I was wondering if the problem of rougher engine has started at that time but I was told that the 02 sensor doesn't do anything for the first few minutes and only works after engine is warmed up. Is this true?

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If your loosing coolant...then you need to find out where its going. Sometimes the head gasket just cracks slightly internally. In that case what happens is it seeps into one of the cylinders and sits on top of the piston. So when you start the car it will smoke alot of white smoke and you can smell the antifreeze...but it gets burnt out of the cylinder and shows no sign of a leak. I had this problem with a 4.0 litre ford explorer...and I was loosing coolant ever so slowly and could not track it down until it got worse. When I finally removed the heads, I found it was not just one head but in fact both heads had cracks between the intake and exhaust valve ports. The gasket was split between the ports and it was leaking down into the cylinder and was being burnt. What I am saying is...that your coolant is not evaporating...your loosing it somewhere, and a pressure test would be a good start, as well as a inspection of the plugs and wires. Would your O2 sensor cause your problem?> Im not sure. I would also remove the throttle body...get a new gasket and make sure your egr port onthe rear of the throttle body is not plugged..that woulld cause a rough start up, but would not explain where your coolant is going.


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