Author Topic: Head gasket replacement?  (Read 2780 times)

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Offline Whitepearl

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  • Engine: 1.8L
  • Fuel: Petrol
  • Transmission: Manual
  • Trim: TS2
  • Year: 2011
Head gasket replacement?
« on: November 02, 2021, 04:25:12 pm »
Hello everyone, first time posting here.

I own a 2015 Mazda 6 SE-L Nav 2.2 with 107k miles.

I recently discovered that my intake shutter valve is faulty and needs to be changed.

Whilst the car was with Mazda I mentioned to them that the cab heater takes a very long time to get warm and only stays warm if I am going at a high speed. Since then it now only gets warm on the passenger side and even then it is intermittent.

Mazda informed me that there are signs that the head gasket is failing. I found this strange as there is no gunk in the oil, white smoke from the back or signs of losing coolant. The car has lost none of the power it had when I bought it at 1 year old and I have never had the overheating warning light illuminate.

I took the car to my own mechanic for a second opinion. He replaced the thermostat and checked that the water pump was ok (it was) and agreed it must be the head gasket.

I also carried out a leak test kit which was to put the bung in the expansion tank and wait to see if the reactant water from the kit turns from blue to yellow indicating the presence of combustion gas in coolant. This test was negative. (I also blew into the solution to check it would change to yellow with CO2 from my breath and it did).

Can anyone offer an opinion on this situation? The car is booked into Mazda in just over a week to have the head gasket and ISV changed at a cost of over £2500.o_O:mad::(

Thanks in advance

Offline dmhelsby

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  • Engine: 2.2L
  • Fuel: Diesel
  • Transmission: Automatic
  • Trim: Sport Nav
  • Year: 2015
Re: Head gasket replacement?
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2021, 07:42:26 pm »
My car, a 2015 Mazda6 wagon with 2.2 Sky-Active Diesel Sport Nav with 83,00mls, is also currently in Mazda main dealer having its head gasket replaced at a cost of £1900 quoted! Remains to be be seen if there is any damage to head or block? Apparently the head can not be skimmed according to Mazda technical dept.
Symptoms were: ineffective heater in cabin taking ages to barely warm up.
Even took it to another independent garage who diagnosed the same thing.

I asked the main dealer to report this to Mazda UK as I’ve never had this sort of problem in any vehicle in my whole driving experience of some 40 years. They were not interested to contribute or provide any help.
It seems I am not alone and surely there must be some design fault that Mazda are aware of and should be held accountable for?

Fingers crossed
David