Westfield Posted May 5, 2006 Share Posted May 5, 2006 My son has a 1998 Audi A3 with the 1.6 petrol engine, i think its the same as the golf 1.6? The coolant light came on yesterday and it appears to have lost a pint of water… There are no visable leaks so on the assumption its gone somewhere I suspect the head gasket… there are quite a few bubbles appearing in the header tank when its hot which is another clue. Anyone know if they are prone to head gasket or other problems that could be causing this problem? Its done 90K miles www.jtccc.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rj Posted May 5, 2006 Share Posted May 5, 2006 It's not an unknown problem, but... Prior to taking the engine to bits check your header tank cap, I have seen this fail on at least two cars. If your engine is identical to the VW unit it's not an imposible DIY job. I did a 2.0 Passat for one of my friends in four-ish hours. /regin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westfield Posted May 6, 2006 Author Share Posted May 6, 2006 Thanks RJ. Looks like I will be removing the head tomorrow to check it out.. the cap looks OK. www.jtccc.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 I had a 1.6 Golf and my dad the A3 version. Both did this on a regular basis, every six months or so. Both cars were investigated by the respective VW/ Audi dealers and no explanation found. We just topped it up each time and carried on with no apparent ill-effects. However, both of our cars had water pump failures at one point, the dealer claimed both times that they'd never come accross that problem - until we pointed out they'd fixed the first one 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Corb Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 My brother in laws car Golf Mk 3 1.6 started losing coolant a couple of years back (1994 car). His local garage replaced the rad and water pump but it kept losing coolant. We pulled the head off expecting to change the gasket but found that the coolant had eaten its way across the fireface and reached the fire ring where it had channelled underneath and was squirting into the combustion chamber. I thought it was game over for the car but rang a local cyl head specialist for advice. They said they see this on the 1.6VW very often. They charged £35 to weld up all the damage and £35 to skim the head back to flat. We replaced all the valve stem oil seals, inlet/exhaust gaskets and head bolts etc so the total cost was about £150 but what looked like a disaster turned out to be a really worthwhile refurbishment. The cars still plodding along nicely today. It goes to show what happens if you dont change the coolant. It had turned seriously acidic. And you'll need a special tool (long star drive) for the head bolts. BC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westfield Posted May 7, 2006 Author Share Posted May 7, 2006 Thanks guys (back under my old user name by the way!) I have just removed the head to find that the gasket has indeed gone. You can see that the fire rings on three of the four cylinders are nice and clean but on cylinder number 4 there is evidence of combustion leakage across the fire ring into the water way. Good news is it has not tracked the head or block. Have to say that although its done 90K there is no wear on the bores at all, in fact you can still see the hone marks!! It has a full service history though before we bought it and I have always done an oil change at 4000 mile intervals… While I am this far in I am going to replace the cam belt, tensioner and the water pump even though the belt was replaced at 75K What’s the consensus on replacing the head bolts? They are almost £50 from the dealer who says they must be replaced as they are stretch bolts? back to work - no time to update the web site!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rj Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 A VW man once said to me: If they don't break when you tighten them up they are ok. He also suggested that I should only re-use them once, but would then not suffer from any problems. I have done this a few times on my friends cars. ( They know that if they don't drive either a Caterham or a VW I won't help them... ) I have never had problems doing this. The engine ought to be good for at least 300k miles. If you look after it that is. Remember to change the tensioner when you replace the cambelt. These are prone to fail! /regin Growing old is mandatory - Growing up is optional - And spelling is not too easy when you are a W**! Edited by - RJ on 7 May 2006 15:08:35 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westfield Posted May 7, 2006 Author Share Posted May 7, 2006 Thanks again RJ. I have removed and inspected everything now. The tensioner bearing feels OK but there is quite a lot of play in it side to side… I will replace it anyway as you say these are prone to failure (Local motor factor sells them in a kit with the cam belt) Interestingly the water pump impellor is plastic and is cracked quite badly, looks to have been breaking up… good job I decided to look at it!! Off to the dealers tomorrow to buy the parts, will report on any further progress as it goes back together! Thanks again for all the advice, this really is a great club! Click here to go to my web site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Corb Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 Tony, the bolts are a gamble as RJ says but the guys who did all the headwork sourced some for me and they weren't that expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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