What is it with cylinder heads?

[Taliesins]

Not the Surf but this week a friend at work (Peugot) Cylinder head gone
A friend (VWGolf) Cylinder head gone. Wife comes home from work last night
in the Van (Citroen) bl**dy cylinder head gone. I ride constantly in the surf with the cylinder head thing in the back of my mind.
It seems to be a much more common fault nowadays than before.

[Apache]

Could it be that these days with modern cars lack of user serviceable parts, no-one bothers looking under the bonnet? Therefore maintenance checks aren't done, coolant levels aren't checked - or coolant changed...

My sister has a VW Beetle (new type). The oil filler is really inaccessible, as a result she was driving round with "this orange lamp" on (as she said). When I checked, the oil was just about touching the bottom of the dipstick! I filled it for her.

She was going to take it to the VW Stealer to "have it serviced".

[Vagrant No2]

All makes of diesel have had heads cracking for years on lorries and vans and cars . Just more diesel cars owned by Joe Public means more people are having it happen to them and not just White Van man etc

[The Lovely Boyo]

All makes of diesel have had heads cracking for years on lorries and vans and cars . Just more diesel cars owned by Joe Public means more people are having it happen to them and not just White Van man etc

Agreed - diesel heads made with the same casting process as petrol. Petrol compression ratio about 10:1, diesel 20:1 and more. Guess what's gonna happen?

BTW - the OEM's think their engines are good if they last 3000 to 4000 hours of running. At a lifetime average speed of 30mph (think about it) that only gives you about 90,000 to 120,000 miles.