Looks like my 1.0 prefacelift Micra has come to the end of the road. In the last week it's been losing coolant for about a week checked all the hoses and thermostat spent a fair bit of time underneath it looking for a leak and found nothing, heater matrix is ok. Bit more white smoke coming out the exhaust though. So today I did a coolant co2 sniffer test. Went from blue to green within about 10minutes. Strange thing is it's not overheating and doesn't seem to be losing any power.Eventually I did find a very small hole where the clip sits at the top of the bottom hose( couldn't see it as underneath). Replaced the hose.
I am thinking about trying to sort this myself as prefacelifts are rare these days. I'm guessing garage would charge a lot to do this especially if the head needs machining. £500 at least...Had a quick look online and head gasket kit with all the bits needed is about £70-80. Weekend job 10hrs at least. Maybe cheaper to put another engine In? Bit of an unknown until cylinder head comes off and is there is any warping. Had a read of the Haynes manual and looks a long job. Been a long time since I've done a head gasket. Does the engine block on these warp? Or is it just the cylinder head usually. Done a few head gaskets on minis back in the day but these micras look a bit more involved. Not much room at the back either to take out manifold/ throttle body.Any advice greatly appreciated marco
I am thinking about trying to sort this myself as prefacelifts are rare these days. I'm guessing garage would charge a lot to do this especially if the head needs machining. £500 at least...Had a quick look online and head gasket kit with all the bits needed is about £70-80. Weekend job 10hrs at least. Maybe cheaper to put another engine In? Bit of an unknown until cylinder head comes off and is there is any warping. Had a read of the Haynes manual and looks a long job. Been a long time since I've done a head gasket. Does the engine block on these warp? Or is it just the cylinder head usually. Done a few head gaskets on minis back in the day but these micras look a bit more involved. Not much room at the back either to take out manifold/ throttle body.Any advice greatly appreciated marco
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I can use the gearbox off my k11 I had a new clutch 25k ago still good. New dizzy too and new thermostat. I found a pin prick hole in the bottom hose so it's probably been like that for a while couldn't see it though as It was on the backside of tunder the pipe clip.It sounds like the labour and cost of machining could be extortionate. But you get what you pay for. Engine swap could be a wkend job done and dusted. No guarantee with 2nd hand engine but lesser of 2 evils. Thanks again Paul
