My interminably unreliable orthogonal blue turd (VW t5.1 180BiTDi) spat its dummy out yesterday on the way back from an otherwise enjoyable weekend at Antur. Ate 2L of coolant in 200 miles, 125C on the gauge, huge over-pressure in the expansion vessel & AA sniff test confirmed suspicions straight away. Yesterday evening was spent in a series of AA truck shuttles back home. Fair play to them: it only took 8hrs from setting off from Beddgelert.

The spawn-of-hitler is set to be traded-in in two week’s time as I’ve stupidly ordered a new one, which is currently pootling its way across the North Sea. As a result I’m not overjoyed at the prospective £1500 bill for a head rebuild (its a BiTDi & no doubt they’ll uncover a further £7k of misery). So I’m proposing to dump the long-life coolant, whack some blue in along with a load of Steel Seal and hope for the best. My questionable morality aside, anyone tried it, any good?

Depends on where and how it’s blown is the honest answer. The two times I’ve had a head gasket blow it’s been useless. The first was a K-series with it’s stupid gasket design, the second was my T4 Where it’d blown between two cylinders. There’s nothing to be lost by trying, it’s already broken.
Morally? You’re Trading it in against a brand new one at the dealer. They’ll have figured in some maintenace in their profit margin, don’t sweat it.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s a firewall failure as it starts and runs fine. Might work then.

On trade-in day, get a mate to tow it just round the corner from the dealer, drive it in and park in the furthest corner of the car park. Collect new van, sign the paperwork and off you go.

Lol, dealer is 230 miles away. I was looking at the cost of hiring a beavertail. Think WBAC might be the answer.

A friend’s wife blew up her Audi A3 (rod through side) She was driving past a Vauxhall dealership and managed to coast in, did a deal there and then, then drove away in a newer Astra. I think she may have had to use the block number feature on her iPhone.

empty out the coolant and fill with water before adding the sealant. It will be more effective.

Well I used it and it seemed to work. It was running a little colder than usual though, perhaps there’s an air lock somewhere, or perhaps it doesn’t like the blue coolant. Anyway, it’s now gone (to trade), not my problem any more. Worst vehicle I’ve ever owned, by a very considerable margin and that includes a 126, a Series 2-and-Some-Bits land rover and the year when I borrowed my mate’s turbo mini pickup.