saab 95 losing cooling fluid

[bunnyman*ian]

hi i have a saab 95 2.0se petrol and i am having to top reservior every 2 days ! i have had a local garage look over it for leaks he found none !he said he left it idling whilst taking coolant cap off and said it started bubbling after ten minutes or so and he told me this is a sign the head gasket is on its way out ! is this the case ? appreciate anyones help ty

[the zohan]

Get a sniff test done to confirm head gasket failure.

If it has failed then you havea few options depending on how mechanically minded you are, how much the car is worth.

I had 150k+ miles pug 406 diesel for a while, notorious for h/g problems, eventually mine went taking out the rad in the process. the car was worth peanuts but mechanically sound apart from that. I use K Seal to seal up the leak, i did another 6K+ miles in 6 months without a problem, sold the car on and it was still going a year later.

http://www.k-seal.co.uk/

This was a cheap fix for a car worth little money. Otherwise you are looking at removing the head and replacing the gaskets as a minimum, dependant on what else is wrong. Head gaskets go for a variety of reasons and one being the engine/rad silting up and overheating so i would get the rad back-flushed as a minimum.

[bunnyman*ian]

thank you zohan could i just ask you what a sniff test is and what it entails ?

[the zohan]

snif test is where a small amount of coolant is removed from the tank and mixed with a chemical to see how it reacts, if there are combustion gasses or oil in there it will react and give a positive test.

You can buy the kits for around £20.00 on the internet or any decent motor factor or get a garage to do it, most will have the kit to do it, iether way it should cost about the same.

[bunnyman*ian]

thank you so much you been great help much appreciated