Hi guys my sister has a mk5 gt tdi 140bhp and has a water problem she can't get to the bottom of She's had the car 2 years and I would say for the last 12 months has had nothing but aggro with it It uses/losses water at a ridiculous rate to the extent she has to fill the water bottle at least twice a week She probably does approx 200 miles a week The car never gets hot or overheats, have had the head gasket checked by 2 separate garages and is fine Had a new water pump & thermostat, radiator,expansion tank, rad pipes still leaks/losses water No oil in the water and vice versa Now the heaters stone cold and doesn't warm up at all but no water in the footwell I've left cardboard under the car with the under tray off to see if there's any leaks and nothing Have I missed something ? Anyone want to hazard a guess at what it might be ?
Has she been filling the car with straight water for the last year?? I bet it's a muddy brown color now with all the rust and corrosion. I would say that with that level of consumption despite the garage saying the gasket is good that is where the issue is or the head is cracked / porous. Any water leak of significant amounts can be seen by the staining from the coolant. Does the coolant reservoir get pressurised ? If you keep running it with no coolant in then if the rust / corrosion doesn't finish it the ice will when it freezes solid. The early BKD heads suffered with cracks apparently into the exhaust manifold. Thus your water is going straight into the manifold so any check for head gasket won't show a problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRXMUv6Z8kI Shot in the dark for a cheap solution K seal http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/K-Seal-Pe...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item19f30e588f If that doesn't work I would suspect it will need a new head. Karl.
When you say pressurised what do mean by that ? How would i tell if the head is cracked part from removing it ? Why would the heater now be cold ? I blows out no smoke at all She drove down to Spain in it in august and used hardly any water at all
It would push the water down in the header tank I drove it home one night in the winter At low speed the heater was hot at 70 the engine temp dropped and the heater got cold As the revs dropped the heater got hot again
Just spoke to her and she said that when she opens the expansion tank water comes back into the bottle but still has to fill it up What does this suggest ?
Aye that was common on a few models It's ever this or the head gasket It will overheat come time She most likely doesn't push it hard enough for that to happen yet
Had exactly the same problem with my first mk2,drove for 9 months having the same problem off and on then one day I was late for work and the h/gasket finally went and filled the sump with water,it was like a relief cause i finally found what the issue was besides worrying about it anymore.
Check the part number of the cylinder head. (located at the front upper edge), If the part ends in 'A' it will crack, If it ends in 'B' it may crack, If it ends in 'C' It'll be ok. If yours has the 'A' suffix this will be your problem.
Had an issue on my Ibiza (same engine) where water was being lost at a silly rate. Got it on the ramps and a few garages and couldn't spot anything for ages. Then noticed that were the two aluminium pipes that go into the bulk head for the heater matrix, water was escaping into the sound deadening on the bulkhead. It was being soaked up and spread out so this is why I could see a leak. Pulled the sound deadening back and could see water escaping. It was a real pain to get to due to the subframe blocking my view. From the top I had to remove the air feed and a few other bits. The ali pipes are connected to the matrix with 2 rubber washers, pennies each from VW. Once I'd swapped them, problem went away. One of the washers that I removed had a little chip in it and was letting a lot of water out. Hope you get to the bottom of it. Andy
