Randomly over the last couple of months my hatch has lost power through one of the gears, but when I park and turn it off for a few minutes, less than 5, and turn it back on, the problem goes away. Yesterday it happened and I couldn't get any power in any gear except for first, everytime I would try to shift to a higher gear the car would shake and even with the accelerator pressed all the way down I couldn't get any power. When I parked the car, I popped the hood and my overflow was empty, which has also been happening over the last couple months. No matter how many times I refill it, it keeps emptying, and I don't see a leak, so I was wondering could this be a blown headgasket? If not, anything else it could be?

 

Check your oil. If it looks milky you have a blown head gasket on the internal side

 

Oil and coolant are fine, no white smoke either.

 

Problems from a blown HG don't just go away. When the problem goes away, does the car run and idle perfectly? Hows the idle when the problem is happening? Have you gotten any CEL's, even temporarily?

 

No CEL's at all, the car runs well, I'm not sure where my idle should be. Also, when the problem happens the car shakes really badly, but then once I stop it goes away. Also, I'm not sure if its relevant but I recently fixed my a/c system, but I haven't tested if it only happens with the compressor on, so far its happened with it on, but I haven't driven with it off yet.

 

I'm wondering if this was bad gas, after I got gas I've been ok for two tanks, but then 10 minutes after I filled up today, the problem was back

 

Happened again today, I don't think its gas, anyone have any ideas? The only symptoms are loss of power and the car shakes really bad, but when I stop for a few minutes and turn the car back on its fine

 

Did you fix this important problem? If not, pressure test the cooling system to locate the leak.

 

I checked the overflow today, and while it wasn't empty it was low, so I guess the first step would be to have it pressure tested. Do you know if this is a common procedure for a shop to do?