16000 miles, 11 months old and...

[mcintyre]

Last week my '07 plate Design 1.8 auto died in Leeds city centre as I was heading to work. Typical headgasket signs - overheating/creamy coolant and no hot air from the heater.

RAC took it to my local dealer who have ordered a new gearbox and radiator...???

What's that all about then?

[stickman]

The oil in the autobox is cooled by circulating in the normal engine rad. If the innards of the rad fail it allows the oil into the cooling system with the results you describe. Also the oil/water blancmangy mixture will have gone into the autobox leaving it damaged also. They will start by fitting the autobox and rad, flushing out the cooling system and seeing what happens. They may then also need a heater matrix if they can't flush the gunge out and/or an engine depending on what they find when they go to start it.

[mcintyre]

Crikey, I wondered if it was something like that, but on my old Vectras the autobox was cooled by a separate oil supply and cooler, underneath the rad.

[spamiser]

The oil in the autobox is cooled by circulating in the normal engine rad. If the innards of the rad fail it allows the oil into the cooling system with the results you describe. Also the oil/water blancmangy mixture will have gone into the autobox leaving it damaged also. They will start by fitting the autobox and rad, flushing out the cooling system and seeing what happens. They may then also need a heater matrix if they can't flush the gunge out and/or an engine depending on what they find when they go to start it.

there we go again you mechanic :lol:

[Homer]

old omegas also had this, but with engine oil.

heat exchanger would fail causing oil to be dumped into the coolant circuit giving hgf symptoms!

providing you're not getting over-pressurisation of the coolant, milky oil, overheating warnings or power loss, then it does sound like the heat exchangers just packed in!

should all be fixed by warranty either way :D

[mcintyre]

Thanks - there was no power loss and no noticeable problems with the auto box, the overheating light did come on about 5 minutes before I got to work and there was a whistling noise coming from under the bonnet.

Not sure about the oil but there was definitely some in the coolant.

The really cool thing about this is that the hire car the RAC have arranged for me is the same year/spec etc as mine just a different colour.

[ZS]

Make sure they flush out the coolant properly, or your heater will stop working.

[mcintyre]

Well a month on the garage still have the car and are apparently waiting for a part from Germany, which they've been waiting for for the past 3 weeks!!

To say I'm not happy is an understatement and although the RAC arranged a hire car for me the same spec as mine it doesn't have the hand controls mine does and so is painful and difficult to drive.

Grrr!! Plus I miss the shiny Black of mine!

[mcintyre]

Hmm I spoke to the dealer earlier to find out exactly what's going on - the part they're waiting for from Germany is the gearbox apparently because there isn't on in the UK!!

Ironically again I now have 2 tax disks for the car, both identical as Motability operations sent me one a couple of weeks ago and another one has turned up this morning lol so gonna call them on Monday.