"Minor" head gasket leak
 

Just throwing this out there for some feedback / educate myself about what is going on with my Z.

The situation is that the car lost most, if not all of its coolant last week due to what the dealer diagnosed as a cracked lower radiator hose. Basically I saw smoke out of the left side engine bay and smelt coolant, drove 500 m to find a safe place to park and as soon as I parked, the car let go and emptied a good 3+ liters (approx. 1-1.5 gals) of coolant on the side of the road (I could hear fluid flowing and gurgling, not just dripping).

Car was towed to a holding yard as it was Sunday and then to the dealer, and was driven on its own power a few meters each time to get onto and off the tow truck. This was 3 days before I went overseas, and now after enquiring over the phone at the dealer about the status of my car, they said they found a small "incidental" head gasket leak. It is covered under extended warranty and they had the entire engine out of the car apparently.

My car is entirely stock and an 09 MY. It is my daily driver with 77,000 km (50,000 something miles), no other problems, and I baby the hell of it with occasional spirited bursts given the time and place, however no track days. Any idea what may/likely is going on that has required the headgasket to be replaced?
Appreciate the feedback!

*Oh, I forgot to add, I check fluids and oil fairly regularly (not every fuel stop, but at least once every 2 weeks), and didn't see any signs of coolant mixing with oil or vice versa, basically no signs/symptoms until my car proverbially pissed itself.

Engine overheated due to loss of coolant will cause head gasket failure .... is a normal consequence of overheating.

How likely is overheating going to happen during winter? With normal city/suburban driving and the car does not get to see the red line much either (I know I'm a bit of a pansy babying it, but it's a keeper for me and I would like to run into these problems as infrequently as possible, hence why this has come as sort of a surprise).

Oh, and with regards to overheating due to coolant loss, I literally noticed it, then pulled up as quick as I could, with oil and coolant temps both well within operating temperatures, temps were around 100 C for oil (212 F) and half way for coolant when the coolant hose gave way.

:iagree:

Oil temp and coolant temp and engine being too hot to burn a gasket don't have that much to do with each other, while YES you did prevent the car from seizing by pulling over quickly, the head gasket probably got too hot because the coolant drained from the top of the motor. And I don't think the overheating caused the gasket or the hose to break, I think it was a fluke that the hose broke and the head just got a bit hot and killed the gasket. I wouldn't worry at all



Hope that made sense, and if it is being covered, I wouldn't worry. As for the car being fixed, I'd say to give it a week or so. While the engine is out, do whatever mods you want, because that's a LOT of labor.

i have an 09 and had my head gaskets replaced. there was slight seeping of green coolant. never any issues though. i heard from Corner 3 garage that they see this a lot on the VQ's.

The head gasket doesn't burn. It warps due to extreme temperatures. I try to check my overflow tank, and so far so good. No overheating this year. But last year with extreme heat my water temps were a couple notches shy of max, and oil temps exceeded 240F. It was so bad out the car overheated while idling. It happened a few times last summer.