NOOOOooooooooooo!!!! UPDATE ;o)

Me thinks head gasket might have gone  :doh:  :cry:
On the way home from work this morning all was fine, then suddenly it appeared……. a big white smoke screen coming from the exhaust  8O
Still drove it 4-5 miles to the safety of the drive  
Pulled over a couple of times to monitor it, restarted first time, everytime after :scratch: was a bit rough until moving tho' then not too bad, never went over 30.
Oil level's fine, no light on dash (does work   )
Seems all the water in the expansion tank has buggered off  :doh:
Am I warm??????

might not be the head gasket. check all your hose's see if ones split in a big way. (fill the expansion tank and see where the water goes)

the big white cloud of smoke is most likely steam from your car dumping all its coolant out.

I bought mine with the h/g already gone and the engine a non-runner.  Exactly the same symptoms you've described - not that this is conclusive :roll:

Mine's a 1471 JB and it certainly wasn't a horrible job to sort out, so it's not all bad news.

Gaz

Having asked a couple of folk the consensus of opinion it is either a stuffed head gasket or cracked block!!!!!
Have checked coolant pipes visually and they seem ok (don't want to pour more water in in case it does more harm)
All the steam / smoke came from the exhaust, how do I check whether it's gasket or a crack in the block? Visually???

Do a cylinder leakdown test, or at the very least a compression test, this will conclusively tell you what's failed.

Which involves???????
Assume there's a bit of kit I need for compression test
Apologies for being a numpty, I'm crash hot on suspension tho'  
Looking in me Haynes but a) It's for Mk2!! b) Can't seem to find 'compression test'  :roll:

....going to a garage.

I would strongly suspect the head gasket has failed given the symptoms you describe.

If you don't have a compression testing kit, and you can't get to a garage, it may be cheaper and easier to take the head off and have a look. If the gasket hasn't gone, it won't do any harm to replace it (?20) and if the block is cracked then you'll need to take the head off anyway.

HTH

Rich

Doh  :doh:
This month's spare dollars gone on cricket kit!
Head off it is then, if block's cracked it's getting a Gti engine dropped in  8O

Yeeesssssssssssssss ;o)

It's back on the road as of yesterday.
Was the head gasket so my friendly mechanic put it right.
For ?250 he stripped it, had head skimmed, fitted full gasket set (he said the others were on their last legs) rebuilt it and voila !!
Just in time for summer  8)

Good news 8)

Rich

Over the moon  :y:
Been having to share the wife's 206Xsi  8O
It's not a bad little motor but it's just not the Golf  

Yay!