Hey y'all,
Brought in my 03 Discovery 76,XXX mi. in for a exhaust leak that I was hoping was going to be covered under California's 8 year/80,000 mile emission warranty law. No leak found blah, blah, blah. Of course the dealer called me and gave me a few pieces of advice on what my car needed, nothing huge EXCEPT they are telling me I have an external headgasket oil leak. I do all my own work/maintenance on my cars and I knew I had some seepage around the oil pan and valve covers (no dripping) but the head gasket, really? I have no oil consumption issues, no mixture of water in the oil or visa versa etc. Maybe I'm just venting, looking for advice, wondering about your past experiences or all of the above... In the end I would do the job myself and not pay the dealer $2700 to fix the car I will take a closer look when I do an oil change next week on her. Any words of compassion appreciated...

 

I suppose thats possible but I have never heard of that.

 

I am seeping on both gaskets, but I am not ready to tear it apart for oil seepage. A little is common. If it starts making a drip, they need to be swapped. Dealers like to scare people. They beg me to put mine on a lift every time I show up..

 

My thoughts exactly... I would expect to have an external head gasket coolant leak before an oil leak, at least that's way more common. I agree with the other post. I think they were trying to scare me more or less. Like I said, no oil consumption issues or any thing of that nature. The car performs flawlessly and I meticulously maintain it.

 

I would not worry about it right now then.
Just keep it in the back of your mind and if you notice any coolant loss then you know what needs to be done.

 

Cool, thanks for the reassurance.... I was ready to trade the car in if it needed that kind of work at 75k. I'll take my chances and hopefully the head gaskets will hold up for a couple of more years. Being that it's British, I check all the fluids every week. :-)

 

Well I guess start looking to trade her in then, head gaskets go in the 70-80k range for most people.

But think of it this way, how much does it cost to replace the timing belt on your VW every 60,000 miles like VW highly recommends?
Can you replace it yourself or do you have a shop do it?

 

Really, they fail that early? Definitely would like avoid trading her in. I see what you're saying about the VW thing, but a routine timing belt job is a bit more straight forward than a head gasket job. I would do the work myself, just not looking forward to it at all. How much can I expect to pay for the parts? Head gaskets, intake gaskets, valve cover gaskets etc with both heads getting a resurface?

 

Depends on what section of the head gasket is leaking. Once they start, though, it is all down hill, so you might want to start saving your money for head gaskets. Better to do them now then when one blows a coolant gusher.

 

I found an external oil leak from the head gasket after pulling my blown motor last weekend . . .