A2 Woes continue....make or break time?

N

northsands

Member
So, the ongoing (and downright expensive :( ) problems with my A2 continue. Head gasket failure which led to a warped head has been fixed with a recon head, (plus another new water pump/timing belt) but the temp gauge still starts to creep up to 110 when it's driven over 60mph, or just whilst giving it a little bit of gas around town. Loss of power follows and then it's a case of letting it cool down before continuing - not exactly good for the long distance commute reasons I bought it for, and probably going to cause more problems with the new head.

So frustrating, never had issues like this in all my years of car ownership. What was supposed to be an affordable, cheap to run car has drained a huge amount of money over the past 3 months. Spent more 'fixing' it than I did on buying it, and the worst thing is I've not even been able to drive it much with it being sat in the garage!! Pretty much at the stage now where I'm debating whether to continue throwing money I don't have at it in the hope that all the problems will resolve (maybe never) or just sell it on as a bit of a project/break it for spares. Kind of reaching the end of my tether with it. It'd clearly be an amazing car if not for the problems, but I'm not sure if it's beyond the point of saving or not. At least not without a different engine?

Anyone got any thoughts on the overheating thing before I go and take some 'breaking for spares' photos. :eek::p

(It's a 1.4 tdi 75bhp if that makes any difference)
 
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I take it you have put a new thermostat in since the over heating ? Is it pushing water out the bottle ? Hope you sort it out. Cheers Mike
 
a2sumo said:
I take it you have put a new thermostat in since the over heating ? Is it pushing water out the bottle ? Hope you sort it out. Cheers Mike
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Thanks Mike - thermostat still unchanged, might be worth a look.

Checked the coolant this morning, levels fine and no longer appears to be pressurised but now signs of oil in the expansion tank which there wasn't before. Not good.
 
certainly worth changing the thermostat, they are about £4 from eurocarparts
My TDI was not getting past 70 deg and took forever to get there in the summer, changed the stat and now gets to 90deg after about 5 miles and never moves above 90deg even after sustained high speed motorway running.

Quite possible to change the stat without removing the alternator but you need a small slim socket and ratchet

Cheers,
 
Thanks Paul - hoping it's something like this. Back in the garage/last chance saloon this morning, awaiting news. Will report back!
 
Hmmm thermostat won't be £4 for an FSI ! Fingers crossed you get it sorted out. Cheers Mike
 
Hi, look in the first post, he states its a tdi 75bhp, so should be around £4 and fitting as per my post

Cheers,
 
Quick update - the problem has (hopefully) been fixed this time around, a blockage in the radiator - which has been replaced with a new one. Maybe this caused the overheating/head gasket problems originally? Garage seem happy with it this time around, I'll be picking it up this weekend. Fingers crossed...

Thanks for all the advice, as ever - much appreciated.
 
Fingers crossed for you I would change the thermostat as a matter of coarse and the sensors as they are cheap as well.
 
Alright, took it for a motorway spin last night, got up to 70-80 and all fine. Getting an occasional limp mode/loss of power under load uphill at high speeds though which appears to be turbo pipe/intercooler related looking at existing posts on here - I can live with that for now, at least the overheating seems to have stopped. Drives great otherwise. 300 mile journey on Monday will confirm this, hopefully!

Turns out they replaced the thermostat as well as the radiator thankfully.
 
i get the occasional limp mode/loss of power when im driving, so im on the same boat as you regarding a loose pipe somewhere but im getting a little oil leak to add to my frustrations.....i better get it sorted soon!

cammy
 
Dredging up an old post, sorry. But a limp mode update...after about 10,000 motorway miles mostly in limp mode I could take it no more.

Sarge had very kindly taken a look at the end of last year, and nothing apparent without getting underneath to get a look at the turbo itself. Anyway, took it back to the garage last week and checked all the hoses with their smoke tester - no leaks. We were about to try the Mr Muscle trick to try and clean the turbo (before inevitably buying a new turbo when it made no difference) when a last ditch suggestion was made to change the Boost Pressure valve. I figured it was worth spending £30 and two minutes to swap them over.

Unbelievably it worked. I've done 1000 miles or so since, and the car has driven beautifully. Feels novel not hammering it in 4th gear to get up to 65mph. Touch wood, over the worst of the problems now which mostly stemmed from previous oweners' neglect...
 
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