Well I have no idea if the head gasket has ever been replaced by the previous owner; I have no maintenance records! But I am going to the Kia dealership (I feel sorry for whoever had to trade in the benz for a Kia!) tomorrow to clear some things up and pick up the maintenance records (which the originally promised me). The number one reason that I'm going to Kia is because I called my warranty place, Wynns, and they said they had never heard of me. So something fishy is going on. My warranty is up in 50 miles, and I'm going to get that $959 back because they never sent my info to the warranty place. I called on this about 3 months ago because I still had not received a warranty kit (supposed to take 7 days and it had so far taken 3 months). They said they would clear it up (dealership and wynns), so I never thought of it again until I called and they STILL have not heard of me. So I am going to get that money back, and if I can't, I'll tell my dad who will do it. But I am pretty good with these kinds of things, so we'll see how this goes. Goes to show you what Kia is all about, what a peice of crap. I'll keep you all posted.
AND BTW, if the head gasket is in fact bad and does need to be replaced anytime, that thousand bucks from the warranty should cover the majority of and not be a problem, so it'll work out either way I guess. I'll inspect with the latex gloves when my car cools down!!

BlackMercedes
 

I checked the oil and coolant and did not notice anything unusual, but I don't think I'd be the best judge of that that either.
And could they determine this just from a 'visual inspection?'
I guess they could by looking at the oil and at the coolant?

Oh yes, and the dealer said that there is an oil leak, and they determined that it was because of the head gasket.

[Edited by Hottee18m on 02-18-2001 at 07:58 PM]