150k on my '04 and I just found out last week that I have one of these $2k HG jobs to look forward to in the near future, except on mine it was the #2 cylinder misfiring in the morning.
No known overheats or prior issues with this vehicle. Previous owner took immaculate care of her and had records of all recommended maintenance done at the dealership -- at the correct mileage intervals, even.
Some of us just have bad luck, I guess.![]()
I take issue with all the posts saying all the head gasket failures are the result of overheating. Where does this come from? The head gasket design was flawed, period. My 05 NEVER was overheated or had a coolant failure. I had (2) 95 4runners and both had their head gaskets fail, with neither one of them due to overheating. At least Toyota did the right thing back then and issued a TSB. This issue is exactly the same.
Sorry if I'm getting a little off-topic, but to answer the questions:
Started with a misfire in the morning that would clear out and run fine after 15 or 20 seconds. After about a week of that it started throwing the MIL during cold starts (P0302 - cylinder #2 misfire). Very slowly losing a small amount of coolant.
Took it into a trusted mechanic (the Dr. House of the automotive world, if you ask me) and had him do everything he could to make sure it wasn't what we thought it was. But it was.
I don't have the $2k to blow on it right now, so he threw in a bottle of some weird radiator sealer (not block seal, I didn't want to permanently gunk everything up) made from ginger root or some junk -- seriously. Topped everything off and it's been running fine for a couple of weeks now... We'll see how long it holds.
Its probably what GM used for a while, I've used it in my vehicle in the past its essentially crushed ginger root. The fibrous material soaks up and expands in the gaps to seal it up. Its really a temporary solution, but sometimes it lasts a long time. I'd still repair the vehicle when you have enough money/time.
good news. i was concerned reading this thread...
That goes for any engine. overheating kills cars. I saw a co-worker of mine drive in the other day with coolant spewing out of his car. we looked and his radiator was cracked. he said no big deal and proceeded to drive home with no coolant... he blew his engine... it was a VW.




