At what mileage did your head gasket fail?

Post by **mtd240** » 14 Nov 2014, 08:39

Restrict your input to 1993-2000 MY vehicles.
Please post *how* it failed (and repeat the exact mileage) in the thread.
Would also be nice to know how often the coolant was changed/flushed.

1998 V70XC, 154,000 miles, no failure (yet).
Coolant flushed every 30,000 miles with the Volvo goods.

Post by **rspi** » 14 Nov 2014, 09:32

This is NOT a Subaru, these cars do not suffer from failed head gaskets from age. They fail from coolant roulette, people overheating the motor due to coolant loss or water pump failure.

Coolant is good for 5 years or 150,000 miles.

Post by **rspi** » 14 Nov 2014, 09:33

Oh, I'm at 267,000 and the coolant was replaced 1 year ago at 245,000.

Post by **erikv11** » 14 Nov 2014, 10:12

Never had a head gasket fail on a Volvo 850/x70. I've replaced them, when pulling the head for other reasons, but not had a factory one fail.

Mileages of engines I have owned on these cars:
225k
180k
240k
205k
110k
170k
125k

FWIW: Before I got them some of these engines ran green coolant for who knows how many years, some only ran Volvo coolant etc, but I always flush thoroughly then switch them over to fresh Zerex G-05 and change it at 30k intervals.

Post by **cn90** » 14 Nov 2014, 10:16

I thin "rspi" is right, some other makers such as Subaru have that problem: head gasket fails at ___ miles.

The Volvo gasket seems to be bullet-proof until a "bullet" hits it (overheating from massive coolant leak os seized thermostat).

Post by **januwan** » 14 Nov 2014, 20:53

Coolant is good for 5 years or 150,000 miles.

I thought we supposed to change it every 30K

Post by **jreed** » 15 Nov 2014, 06:46

No failure yet at 176K miles on our '97 855 GLT. I change the coolant every two years with 50% blue Volvo OEM coolant and 50% distilled water.

Post by **JRL** » 15 Nov 2014, 10:16

NEVER wait 5 years or 150K
Every 30K is a good rule of thumb but no later than 60K

Post by **mtd240** » 18 Nov 2014, 08:24

Cool, good to know that headgaskets are really an "issue" with these. Seems like "lack of maintenance" is the main headgasket killer.

JRL wrote:NEVER wait 5 years or 150K
Every 30K is a good rule of thumb but no later than 60K

Agreed, never higher unless you are using Toyota Red ("Extra Long Life", 120k miles) or even the newer iterations of Dexcool (reformulated, no longer the plastic-eating gunk-causing stuff it once was). I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that in my cars, though. Thermostat will be dead before the coolant change interval is over

I do it every 30k miles, OEM stuff, for my 240s and XC. Run some plain distilled water for a couple minutes before the final fill. Only costs ~$40 and less than an hour.

Post by **cn90** » 18 Nov 2014, 09:16

I think head gasket failure has very little to do with coolant neglect.

Below is a nice article by Larry Carley on the causes of HG failure:
http://www.import-car.com/internal-engi ... kets-fail/

Basically it boils down to 2 main causes:
1. Overheating
2. Detonation & Pre-Ignition