E320 V6 Petrol Head Gaskets failure?

[rodB999]

I have a 1998 E320 V6 petrol and on the way home from a meeting it blew the bottom radiator hose off and emptied the cooling system contents because the jubilee clip had failed / broken. The RAC guy put the hose back for me but on start up thought the car had a lot of steam / water vapour coming from the exhaust...he said he thought it 'done a head gasket' and recovered me home. When I had a look under some light at home, there is no oil in the water, or water in the oil and with the car running with with the lid off the expansion tank, no violent bubbling....any views please?

The obvious next thing would be to get it pressure tested. If it is a head gasket what is a likely price for getting the pair done?

Thanks in advance

Rod B.

 

[walsi]

Hi ya, the first and main governing thing is how quick did you realise and how quick did you turn the engine off. You have done the obvious things by visual checking for leaks, checking the oil and water and running with the rad cap off. All you can do is run it up to temperature and see what happens

Cheers Martin

 

[walsi]

One other thing is that it was very damp and mild down here last night and when i moved a van i was working on out of the workshop you would have sworn that had its head gasket had gone with the amount of steam or vapour that was coming out of the exhaust. It was purely down to the weather.

 

[BTB 500]

Often with a badly failed head gasket you'll hear the radiator cap lifting (venting) when you accelerate.

 

[BlackC55]

I have (so far) never seen a head gasket failure on a 112 engine. i would be very suprised if it has gone,

Did it overheat?

 

[rodB999]

Guys

Thank you for the help on this one, I have today drained down the water, replaced a number of jubilee clips and refilled with 50/50 water antifreeze (Comma Xstream Green) run it up to temperature and taken a short drive around the block, all seems OK. Just for information, the low coolant warning display alerted me to an issue, usually the water never moves and the temperature got to with 2 -3mm of the red zone...
It was a very wet night last night so that might explain all the water vapour...

 

[walsi]

Hi ya, glad its all ok. There are a few drivers out there that could learn from you about watching there dashboard and warning lights and knowing exactly what they said . It never ceases to amaze me the number of people that drive around in there cars and when they break down you ask what lights were on or what temperature was it at and they dont know because they never look at anything but the speedo and dont know "what any of the flashy lighty things " mean anyway.
They should add a new catorgery to the driving test about learning how to and what to do in the event of a warning light flashing up on the car dash and about reading the car handbook and actually understanding at least what all the "flashy lighty things" mean and what to do about it.
End of rant, have a nice day now

Cheers Martin

 

[Adam230K]

I was going to say the same thing as Olly, he's the one who's told me in all his years of working as a Benz technician that he's never seen a merc V6 head gasket fail!

Also, for the head gasket to fail from overheating you have to drive it in the red zone for some time (done this alot on my old c200, and the gasket didnt fail!)... it isn't so fragile that it'll fail as soon as you get some abnormal heat...

 

[jeremy 2516]

I had a top hose blow on my 320-24 Coupe , the temp guage went to within a few mm's of the red zone , so I waited for it all to cool , then drove at about 25-30 to the nearest petrol station and put in about 3 and a half litres of water . Everything was ok , and I have driven about 1500 miles since then with no problems .

 

[goldestate]

On the other side "" is a poster complaining of his new mercedes and how an engine management light has been on for a week !!!!!!!!!!! apparently it makes his car poor ! my complaint would be when nothing came on as it died at the side of the motorway !


"I had to have both front wings replaced recently as well (MB only paid for 50% of the work) the engine warning light is on permanently and the display does not show time or temperature anymore. All in all, my experience of MB ownership is not really what I expected and I doubt I'll be buying another."

Overestimated him, so checked this out of interest, it would appear his light is a permanent fixture, he has no temperature and clearly he doesn't know what day it is, well time of it anyway.