I noticed a week ago that the water level in the header tank was very low. This is slightly concerning as I had topped it up three weeks before. However, I duly topped it up and made a mental note to keep checking it.

Again I've noted today that the level is lower than I would expect but there doesn't seem to be any water leak that I can observe either underneath or around the engine.

To me this - coupled with blue smoke on start-up and a light haze whilst driving - I am beginning to think it's time to change the head-gasket :doh: *also know as bang goes the weekend!*

Before I take everything apart - and aware I've not given you much info - I'd appreciate it if anyone can think of anything else that this could be?

Many thanks

Matt

There are multiple reasons why you can loose water from header tank coupled with smoke, is it a td5,300 or 200. either way if your smoke is blueish or black its normally oil ior diesel burning, when my HG went it was plumes and plumes of brilliant white smoke, I have a td5.
Header tansk are prone to leaking and pipes can develop pin holes or splits that only let go under pressure or when hot and of course evaporate any drips to the naked eye,

Check on here via the search feature for sniff tests, water in oil etc these are simple checks withoit garage expense, you may be lucky on the HG, what model, how old how many miles, will all help the more knoledgable on here Matt.

Good luck

Matt

Thanks BigMatt!

106k miles on a 300Tdi

Anyway - as they say the plot thickens... I'm now relavtively happy it's not the head gasket.... I think what I am seeing is two different issues. 1) The oil smoke -- probably this is going to be the rocker oil seals as it clears.

2) The low coolant... I'm now confident this is either the heater matrix or the o-rings on the pipes. After taking the car swimming a few weeks ago a made the inside soaked. Despite having had heaters etc in the cab for days I couldn't get it to dry out. So I ripped out (a.k.a. removed carefully) the carpet and soundproofing but still the front part of the cab has been staying fairly wet... FINALLY I noticed (I'm quick see!) that the water was not the brown sh***y stuff from the swim but was the same colour as the anti-freeze mix I was putting in to top up.

So instead of the weekend for the HG it looks like a dashboard out job to examine whats happening in there. I really wonder why LandRover made the matrix and pipes so hard to inspect / replace.

Matt