Story time.

My friend's Myvi recently encounter a blown head gasket at mileage 170,000km. He got the worst type where coolant mix with the engine oil, resulting in overheat and a hefty bill (RM3000+ ) to overhaul the engine head.

Question is, should we do preventive maintenance to avoid head gasket failure?

Should we replace the head gasket at certain mileage? Maybe like every 150,000km?

This post has been edited by Kosumaledoko: Jul 1 2015, 06:05 PM

No one replace head gasket as part of scheduled maintenance. Its only to be replaced in case of top overhaul or major repair. Of course like anything else, nothing last forever and can breakdown if there's some operating defect like overheating or other mechanical damage. In those days, 150k km, owners would opt to decarbonize or top overhaul the cylinder head for best efficiency. Gasket replacement would be part of the proceedure.

I know it's no part of maintenance, they're not listed in the service manual as well.

But if we wait until it goes bad, things could've been bad just like what my friend experienced. So isn't it wiser to just replace them at certain mileage, since it cost around Rm300-RM500, rather than a hefty top overhaul + permanent damage to engine?

For normal aspirated engine, driven normally, and well cared according to schedule, I still insist there's no need to replace gasket. Blown head gasket for no reason is extremely rare.Be always alert the cooling system is always in order, proper coolant type used and STOP the car the moment the temperature goes up. That's all I can insist.
If the head gasket is replaced, cylinder head bolts are to be retorqued again say at tne 1000km point. I dont' know if service centers do this at 1000km service. It is necessary as safety measure, no matter what car.

Thanks for the info.

Now that my radiator cap develop some brown gooey sludge, maybe it's time to start monitoring...

Flush the radiator and change to Toyota Long Life coolant (assuming you own a Myvi). Its around RM20 a bottle. I use this and change it every few years. NOT even one bit of rust, corrosion or sludge after 5 years. Just my recommendation.
You can actually DIY..there's no rocket science in flushing and refilling coolant to the radiator. Youtube got a lot of video guide on how to do, maybe different car, but same procedure.

This post has been edited by bsl555: Jul 2 2015, 12:17 AM

The cause of a blown head gasket is usually loss of coolant and overheating. The gasket isn't a wear and tear part which you need to replace every x km.

Gulp..RM3k for top overhaul..I think include skim head too as it is so expensive?

Usually the root cause is loss of coolant then overheat because using low quality parts like water pump.
If temperature increases just a bit, you need to raise the alarm liao which can spoilt rubber gaskets at intake manifold,spark plug holes..overheat at max too long will spoilt your head gasket and warp your engine head.

It really boils down to how user taking care of their cars..my 10-year Savvy with renault engine still running great at 190k km.

gasket failure is not cause for overheating

overheating is cause for gasket failure

so

keep the cooling system clean and fresh and will never have to repalce gasket

Yup, using Toyota long life coolant on my Kelisa for 2 years +. I hope the minor brown sludge is due pipe water residue in the cooling system... Should have use distilled water.

RM20 is about 2 years ago... Now I think become RM25??

This post has been edited by Kosumaledoko: Jul 2 2015, 02:08 PM

How to avoid blown head gasket, What's your mileage when they go bad?

to avoid is easy, when ur car engine temperature not stable which sometime ok sometime not, so since that moment u need to start alert ur temperature meter..

as for newer car which doesnt have temperature meter, just alert any weird sign in meter cluster..

as for my car, i never had problem with overheating.. worst is snap timing belt which resulted all valve bending, so replace the whole thing with second hand head buy from halfcut shop..

Yes, spares stores now factor in GST for spares, but I replaced mine 1 year ago. Its still much better than all those greenish ethyl glycol which don't last. I'll continue to use this Toyota coolant. No issues with me.

Timing snap is the worst disaster than damage from overheating. Most overheated cylinder head can be saved but most damage occur when belt snap. Its a terrible experience.

This post has been edited by bsl555: Jul 2 2015, 02:33 PM

My previous year 2005 Myvi 1.3L almost got overheated because the water pump died at 97k km. Luckily I manage to stop the car in time to prevent the damage from being done. I never expected the water pump to die so fast. If only the Myvi 1.3L is running on timing belt, I would have replaced it together with the water pump as a one time maintenance job .

water pump failure is usually detectable by the noise that it makes. it'll be noisy for a couple of month before actually failing.

my beat up myvi overheated twice. first time at the side of the road with my wife and kids inside and the radiator fan decides to fail. i was across the road buying food so can't monitor the temp.

the water boiled, backpressure into the reservoir causing it to pop open and the hot coolant overflowed to the hot engine causing massive white smoke.
got bystanders come out carrying fire extinguisher.

radiator fan failed after 5 years. replacement fan failed after 3 years. water pump is noisy after 8 years.
overheated twice but the head assembly didn't flex/bend so no water leaking into the engine.

overheating cause gasket failure because there's a high chance the head assembly will flex. so no matter if you use metal gasket, it doesn't avoid the gasket leaking problem if the cooling system is problematic.