So I'm ready to drive my stupid car off a cliff. I have a 95 RS with 119 K miles on it. Coolant has been spilling out from somewhere and I couldn't figure out where from. I've replaced the gasket, thermostat, hose, radiator, and radiator fan. It's the head gasket that's leaking, and it's making a huge mess. My friend and I are going to fix it this weekend, hopefully won't be too bad. I was going to have my mechanic fix it, but I just put in 2 grand of body work into it and have no money left over to be fixing stuff like this. Anyone else had this happen to them, or know how difficult it is to do? Someone told me I need to replace the timing belt but I don't see what that has to do with the gasket?

 

are you sure its the head gasket? coolant doesnt 'spill out' if you have a blown head gasket an if it does it would have to be so bad your car wouldnt be drivable. i would check to find exactly where its leaking. if you do need a new head gasket expect around 500$ jus for labor its not cheap. if you have a shop manual and an accurate torque wrench you can do it yourself though..
oh, timing belt is also expensive and if you do it yourslef you really should make sure you know what you are doing perfection is critical or you could destroy your engine.

 

mine is spilling oil and I figured it shouldn't do that. i would have expected coolant if the gasket blew around the coolant hole. It's an 8 hr job for a experienced mech. Not only do oyu need to do the timing belt (because yor there and why have it break on you later) but oyu should do the water pump too. It's run off the timing belt. New belt means more tension on a worn pump bearing which will probably cause it to go bad later. $600 roughly to do the head...I wouldn't want to do it again. That's my logic right now. Getting the job done this week.