gbrownlee
13-06-2007, 11:34 AM
Although this information may be obvious to some of you out there I thought I would post this for the benefit of others with a similar problem.
Symptoms:
Loss of water
Turbo cutting out after half an hour or so
My Golf GT TDI appeared to go into limp mode on the way back from Oxford to Glasgow (350 miles). The turbo cut out and there was little power. When I got back to Glasgow the low water warning light came on.
I spoke to friends who knew a bit about Golfs and it was suggested that it may be the water pump. As the factory fit was a plastic impellor, this had a tendency to break, and the water may not be moving around the engine, and thus burning up. However, I spoke to a mechanic at my local garage and he explained the coolant system was a sealed system so the water could not escape.
By now the car was loosing approx 2 litres of water in 100 miles. The turbo cut out whenever the car was driving hard for 20-30 minutes and I had not yet had a definitive diagnosis.
I put the car into an audi specialist and after much diagnosis with VAG com and test runs, the conclusion was the cylinder head gasket or the cylinder head was at fault. Causing water to get into one of the cylinders.
After the cylinder head was removed, it was abvious where the breach had occured. There was a mark between the 3rd cylinder and the coolant channel behind it. When I inspected the gasket, the surface had been considerably smoothed in this area.
Hope this information is of use to someone. Please feel free to ask if there is anything I have left out.
Graham
Symptoms:
Loss of water
Turbo cutting out after half an hour or so
My Golf GT TDI appeared to go into limp mode on the way back from Oxford to Glasgow (350 miles). The turbo cut out and there was little power. When I got back to Glasgow the low water warning light came on.
I spoke to friends who knew a bit about Golfs and it was suggested that it may be the water pump. As the factory fit was a plastic impellor, this had a tendency to break, and the water may not be moving around the engine, and thus burning up. However, I spoke to a mechanic at my local garage and he explained the coolant system was a sealed system so the water could not escape.
By now the car was loosing approx 2 litres of water in 100 miles. The turbo cut out whenever the car was driving hard for 20-30 minutes and I had not yet had a definitive diagnosis.
I put the car into an audi specialist and after much diagnosis with VAG com and test runs, the conclusion was the cylinder head gasket or the cylinder head was at fault. Causing water to get into one of the cylinders.
After the cylinder head was removed, it was abvious where the breach had occured. There was a mark between the 3rd cylinder and the coolant channel behind it. When I inspected the gasket, the surface had been considerably smoothed in this area.
Hope this information is of use to someone. Please feel free to ask if there is anything I have left out.
Graham