Let me guess, you never owned a VW Rabbit Diesel.

 

LOL, no, the closest thing was a 1979 Scirocco.

 

Hi all - here is a quick update. My mechanic removed the head gasket (see attached photos below) and sent the cylinder head to his machine shop. What they found is a nice long crack on the external surface of the cylinder head (see attached photos). My mechanic also said that there were no overheating signs in the engine and that this may be a material defect failure. Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation. Could I just put in a remanufactured (not rebuilt) cylinder head and solve the problem? Or do you think there may be cracks on the cylinder block as well, and I am better off with a used engine (whose maintenance story will be unknown)? Once fixed I hope to sell the car (within the next 2 months), and I do not want to keep spending a ton of money on this. All input is welcome.

 

I'm thinking a remanufactured head would be the perfect solution. That said, I might be inclined to press Mazda for the fix.

 

I agree, but bring it to Mazda service first for a re-call consideration. They might just take care of that like it never happened.

 

I had opened a ticket with Mazda NA when this problem started. Mazda dealer thought it was a blown head gasket and Mazda's response was that the car was out of warranty and they'd do nothing about it. Today I called again, provided the new information we have, yet pretty much got the same response. Any ideas of how to effectively escalate this within Mazda?