Possible Head Gasket failure 97 Corolla

[marklfc77]

Hi I wonder if anyone can help I think I have the dreaded head gasket failure mayo under the oil cap, the car has only done 20000 miles, would there be any other reason for this? Is HD failure common in Corollas or what would be the causes of this so I can get it sorted, everything else seems fine the oil doesn't seem to be in the expansion tank.

[kcg795]

Ok, from the sound of it, you do have a bad headgasket. The water gets into the oil like this. It leaks into the combustion chamber and it seeps past the piston rings and drains into the oil pan. So there's no way your oil can get into the coolant. However, exhaust can get into the coolant, making it change color. Depending on how much damage is done to your headgasket, your engine might run a little rough. Do not drive it anymore, unless it's a very short trip to the repair shop, until you get it fixed. Oh, and Toyotas and Aftermarket Headgaskets do NOT get along too well. You want to get your headgasket from Toyota. Believe me. They are MUCH stronger than the cheap aftermarket brands. My engine in my 84 Toyota Van was rebuilt by a Toyota dealer who screwed us over by using a Beck/Arnley type headgasket. I was lucky to get 10,000 miles from it. When I got one straight from another Toyota dealer, the difference was obvious. The firing rings are almost twice as thick. So let me break it down.

#1 Your headgasket is fucked.
#2 If the trip to the shop is more than 5 miles, get it towed.
#3 Go with OEM.
#4 If you can't do #2, do #5.
#5 Buy a Chilton manual and do the job yourself.
#6 Anything that you remove that has a gasket, it gets a new gasket. So buy a gasket "set" instead of just a headgasket.

I hope this helps out. Good luck.

[marklfc77]

Hi Cheers for the help I was speaking to the garage which sold me the car, and he said he would be very surprised if it was the head gasket, but they are going to look at the car for me, he said it could just be the oil, he said that castrol gtx would sometimes leave a white scum, because it is a non synthetic oil is this possible or is he spinning me a yarn, the white scum has disappeared from the cap could be from when I touched it caused it to break down, as you can see I know nothing about cars, my last car was a Rover 214 and I had 2 head failures so I am a bit paranoid

[veedubmechanic]

White foam is usually from short trip driving.... 20k miles for a 97.. sounds like short trip driving to me. If there is any large amounts of sweet smelling white smoke from the tail pipe its burnin coolant.

[marklfc77]

The owners of the car previously where an old couple who seemed only to have driven low mileage I got the car in July with 15000 miles on the clock I have put on 5000 since then.
I haven't noticed an excessive amount of smoke coming from the rear of the car, if it was burning coolant would there be a big drop in the coolant level or would it me a minor amount. I haven't noticed any foam or white in the oil cap since.