Information Head Gasket

B

brads

Member
It seems that a few of you out there have needed the cylinder head gasket replaced on your 1.4 TDI's. My cooling system is holding pressure all the time and the temperature will rise above 90 degrees if driven over 65/70 mph but falls back to 90 degrees if I back off to 55mph and below. It stays at 90 degrees even in heavy traffic, so seems to do it only when loaded. I have just had the cam belt, water pump, thermostat and alternator replaced last week, as well as a new Varta silver battery fitted. They wanted a further £1000 to do the head gasket, which I thought was a bit steep so choose not to as the bill was already over £900. My thoughts were to cut my losses and px the car into the trade, as I couldn't sell it privately knowing of the problem, but I've owned my A2 for 9 years now so am somewhat attached! I had a quick look on the a2oc site yesterday (before it crashed again) and saw that someone had had there gasket replaced for £500. I wouldn't mind having it done at around that price, but another £1000 on top of what I've already payed out seems a bit daft on a car that's only worth around £3500.
The other thing that worries me, is when the garage starts on that after stripping the head down it may not be the head gasket, but possibly a cracked head or block! Has anyone known of a cracked head/block on a 1.4 tdi engine?
Does anyone know of anywhere in the Manchester area that is reasonable with there prices? I had the other work carried out at Hope St Garage/Audi Doctor in Hazel Grove.
Any recommendations or advice welcome!
Cheers, Brads.
 
Head gasket problems on TDi's usually start after the engine has lost coolant due to damaged radiator or hose etc then severely overheated. After this the early symptoms are gradual loss of coolant from the header tank cap as the system is pressurised by combustion gases leaking past the head gasket. This initially happens when the engine is working hard but quickly develops into the system presssurising even when cold.
If your car has never had the severe overheat then from your description I'd guess there is only a 20% chance the head gasket has failed. As you have already changed the thermostat I'd be tempted to check out or replace the dual temp sender first.

Cheers Spike
 
Hi Spike, the car has overheated once and lost some coolant from the header tank. When the water pump was replaced last week, the mechanic told me there was a bit of oil/sooty deposit on the impeller which he recons was due to exhaust gases leaking into the cooling system. Not sure what course of action to take.

Cheers, Brads.
 
It does sound like a head gasket problem, and it will get worse over time, probably better to part exchange with a garage and get rid.
 
Had a more realistic quote today of £550 to replace the head gasket. That includes labour and parts. I think at that price it's worth doing. I wouldn't know what to px it for anyway! When ever I get behind the wheel, especially on twisty roads, the A2 leaves me grinning from ear to ear!:D
 
As the engine has overheated in the past I agree it could be a head gasket problem. As a final check, some garages have a test kit which detects combustion gas residue in the coolant. May be worth having this done if the other symptoms are not conclusive.

Cheers Spike
 
Hi Brads did you get to the bottom of this I have the same issue and am in the same situation unsure what to do. Do I get the headgasket replaced or get the whole engine replaced....? thanks
 
Hi All,

I'm new here as I have recently bought a nice little A2 TDI SE (75 bhp) for my wife, came across this forum and noticed this thread so I thought I'd share a similar experience I have had with my MK IV golf 1.9 TDI (PD). I believe the 3 cylinder TDI engines are similar to the 4 cylinder PD engines, they look very similar just minus a cylinder. I know the thread is a bit old but someone may read this and find it useful.

For me the symptoms were the same, car was fine in traffic/round town/low speeds but as soon as the engine got under load at speed or uphill, temperature went up and coolant was pushed out of the expansion tank overflow. After a lot of looking around online and speaking to others I was told it could be that the filler cap has lost it's ability to resist the pressure in the coolant system and needs replacing (which i did and it helped a little) or that the head gasket needed replacing. This was due to late 115BHP and early 130BHP Golfs suffering from weak head gaskets (around 2001/2002) and fail when the engine is under load and causes exhaust gases to pressurize the cooling system.

So I decided to have a go at this myself as I refuse to pay garage costs, and after a lot of oily dirty work I found that the gasket had failed! Checked that the head hadn't warped the best I could using a steel ruler, replaced the gasket and head bolts and the car has been right ever since (it was replaced @ 155,000 miles and the car is now @ 200,000 miles and is still going strong.

Hope this helps someone.

Pete.
 
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