oil in coolant

Well the c3 pluriel roof is sorted but now i have noted oil in the coolant. I flushed it when i purchased the car as it was brown and sludgy. But after 3 weeks i started to see an oil film line. So thought i couldn't have flushed it properly so on consulting haynes i didn't flush the heater matrix and didn't open the air vent, so flushed again with rad flush, re filled been fine for 3 weeks and now staring to see film again and cream on cap. The car shows no signs of overheating and no white smoke from exhaust, drives fine and runs well.
Starting to think the head gaskets is leaking from an oil way to the coolant. the mileage is 59K and its a 1.4 petrol. Thinking if the cam belt is due next year i may lift the head and replace the gasket. had a quick looks and read the haynes looks an ok job and with no overheating the head should not be warped. Are there any after-market head gaskets which are better, i have used Felpro and Cosmetic ones in the passed on fords with good results. Also cam belt manufactures which are well regarded for citroens again i have used Gates ones which no issues but not on citroens.

Any confirmation on the above and advice on manufactures would be appreciated, any thing else i have to take into account before attacking a head gasket on one of these ?

It's a common problem with this engine. I had the same thing, thin oil film would appear, some 30.000 miles ago. But since everything else was OK, I just flushed it a couple of times and oil stopped appearing. Many people don't believe in self-healing properties, but many Citroens have it.

Still, changing the gasket is a good idea, but I don't have any brand advice. Don't forget to clean the coolant tank, it can get really muddy (well mine did), and coolant wasn't 100% clean until did it. It's not an easy job, I used handful of small rocks and sand mixed with petrol. Shake it like crazy and flush, repeat if necessary.

Thanks for the assurance I'm not alone,

I did clean the bottle with some bottle brushes as mine was brown, i think for the time being i will monitor it and see if it clears itself!.

Thanks again

The head gasket is done,

Used a Elring one in the end and replaced the water pump, fitted an Ina timing belts kit. The daughter overheated and when i checked it the water bottle was full of gulp.
Fitted all in a day the head was flat and since its been done no problem. The head gasket was in a bad state. the layers had separated and rusted, and the coolant ways in some cases were blocked. amazed it has not played up before now. anyway not too difficult to do, only one bolt snapped in the water pump housing but the whole thing unbolts so could re drill and tap on the bench.

mogman wrote:The head gasket is done,

Great work!

mogman wrote:Used a Elring one in the end and replaced the water pump,

Good idea, changing the extra parts while its all apart makes a lot of sense, considering the time it take to replace parts when its all back together.

mogman wrote:The head gasket was in a bad state. the layers had separated and rusted, and the coolant ways in some cases were blocked.

Your diagnosis was right then, well done. It can be a difficult call to blame the head gasket considering the time it takes (especially if you have to pay a garage). Hopefully your post will help others make that difficult decision to remove the head


Thank you for the pictures