Losing coolant and fumes found in cooling system, head gasket blown?
- Thread starter o5ka
- Start date
Faced with a massive bill i think the op is quite entitled to ask for advice on a specialist forum ?
Is there any gunk in the oil filler cap. My friend had an issue loosing coolant and bubbling in the coolant tank. Turned out to be an intercooler leak.
Its 63 plate seat Leon Fr 2.0 tdi 184
It looks like is being pushed up the system and comes out from top outlet under cap.
That is a classic sign of a blocked heater matrix. Have you had that replaced or had issues with it?
What about fumes in coolant? Does it happen when matrix is clogged? Have had that blue liquid turning green when testing...
I know of some people who have had positive tests due to presence of gases, possibly due to the EGR cooler or similar influencing the coolant. I can't say for sure but I know it isn't 100% cast iron proof of HG failure.
If you have milky oil or steam coming out of the exhaust then HG is likely.
The heater matrix over pressure and venting via the header tank cap only happens during/directly after a DPF regen when it's super hot and the blocked matrix stops it cooling properly. Any idea whether your coolant loss is all of the time or once in a while?
You can kinda do some tests/fault finding to see if the matrix is a potential issue. It's a known issue with the TDI's.
Just trying to save you going down the HG route before you have to shell out £££'s.
Could be the oil cooler, if that engine has one, above the oil filter, if these go you can get the oil water transfer, symptoms the same as head gasket failure. A cheap easy part to replace
Obviously motorway driving is drinking a lot, day to day driving is not bad but still.
If you're losing coolant on a regular/daily basis then somethings not right.
With a blocked heater matrix you only really have the issue/loss every 200 miles or so when the car does a DPF regen.
Hope you get sorted.
I think that without knowing the skills of the garage that you (OP) used, as you have an engine that is known to be able to have heater issues potential and EGR cooler possible issues and even an oil cooler being a possibility, if that car was presented to a general makes garage with "ejecting coolant" issues, they might just be defaulting to HG gone! I hope so for your wallet, good luck,I'd be heading towards a good local VW Group Indie ASAP.
A very outside possibility:- that garage did diagnose this correctly, has done a good job of replacing a failed HG but failed miserably when it came to purging any or all trapped air when refilling the coolant - in which case this dropping coolant level will settle down once it has self purged itself - or is coolant being ejected from the header tank still?
Edit:- or just another issue that you didn't notice which the HG was failing, like the EGR cooler leaking - does the cabin heater work okay?
Edit:- or just another issue that you didn't notice which the HG was failing, like the EGR cooler leaking - does the cabin heater work okay?
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