Head problems...the truth.

[mr mince]

Originally Posted by oitsnik

Wonder what the head failure ratio is for people running pure diesel, and those running on various mixes,I havnt had my bus long but i bought it of a friend who had owned it since import almost 4 years ago,and she has had no problems with it at all,I have put veggie in at a 50/50 mix and its running fine,except its deffo quicker,so i presume all those little explosions in my cylinder heads are now much bigger,im wondering are we partly to blame for the demise of our own cylinder heads,by increasing the heat in the combustion chambers,just a thought.

2 years of vegging for me, so far so good.

I always found my Nissan Serena ran a little colder on veg (and it's temp gauge used to move without the addition of a mason alarm), never thought to look into the reason at the time

[TLC]

I'm not gonna vote, so I won't tempt fate

*hugs*
Pet

[mr mince]

Just having a look at the poll it's better than I would have thought.

Considering as has been discussed a lot of people only find here after searcing the internet to find out why their bus is overheating/steaming/losing coolant/has blown the bonnet off with the rad cap whichever applies

[Robin]

Originally Posted by OzziOwl

I have had two Lucidas over the past 3 years and both have had the cylinder head crack at around 143k km.

That does seem to be the common fail point, or after 2 years in the UK....

[daven2695]

I've had a Liteace and two Lucida's, Had no problems with either as far as heads are concerned. The Liteace had covered 176000K the first lucy had only 69,000K when I sold her, the present Lucy has 146,000K so I'll keep praying that they don't give up in the 140,000s. I stuck a load of rad cleaner in and flushed the sytem through when I bought her it fetched a lot of muck out out and so far had no heating or over-heating probs if I dare say it. I don't think these buses are any better or worse than any 10 - 15 + year old cars but they certainly are a very useful motor to have. Dave

[hairy mark]

Originally Posted by Robin

That does seem to be the common fail point, or after 2 years in the UK....

Mine will have been here for 2 years in April. OMG better put Bob on speed dial..

[mr mince]

Mine has been here 2 years since about Sept although it's only coming up for 2 years on the road next month

[steve mmmph]

Originally Posted by oitsnik

Wonder what the head failure ratio is for people running pure diesel, and those running on various mixes,I havnt had my bus long but i bought it of a friend who had owned it since import almost 4 years ago,and she has had no problems with it at all,I have put veggie in at a 50/50 mix and its running fine,except its deffo quicker,so i presume all those little explosions in my cylinder heads are now much bigger,im wondering are we partly to blame for the demise of our own cylinder heads,by increasing the heat in the combustion chambers,just a thought.

I think due to what mix you are using, but 50% veg would mean lower combustion, i might be wrong, steve...

[Splash]

I'm on 128K at the moment, just going out to flush the rad be back soon
No head probs for me yet
I think finding out the cause of the failures may be the most useful thing we can do, can we all come back with what we think caused the failure?
Has anyone had overheating caused by the water pump?
Has anyone had overheating caused by the thermostat?
Has anyone had overheating caused by the rad'?
Has anyone had overheating caused by loss of coolant?
ETC?
Those that have had a failure, what driving style do you do I.E. poodling about or racing and rallying?
Do you normally do short journeys or long ones?
What fuel do you use?
Loaded or un-loaded towing etc?
service intervals?

[Guinness]

Hi all
only had the emina for 2 months and in that time i have had 6 weeks of overheating problems.

the previous owner told me that it had a slight water leak but she had traveled the length and breath of the UK with absolutely NO overheating problems.

2 days in, traveling around town NO problems

3 days in 6 of us hit the motorway with golf bags and out for the day.
within 3 miles at 70 mph the temp gauge was fully into the RED

took it to the local garage and the water pump was completely shot
new water pump & timing belt ( i think someone had been feeding me a bit of winney the poo).

for the last 5 weeks i have been running up and down the motorway but i have not been able to go over 50/55 mph without overheating, 25/35mph up inclines.
thanks to Bod who told me that the rad was blocked & Ian who insisted the rad was blocked and told me how to strip and flush, I eventually got that sorted & now the engine has been perfect with no overheating probs whatsoever.

so effectively my emina has been running for the last 6 weeks in and out of the RED but i have no sign of any head problems YET

If the heads on these motors where so delicate, wouldn't mine have have gone by now?

before i owned the bus i fell into the category of only coming to this site because i had this problem.

now you can't get me off it