Golf TDi 130 Overheating

[GolfPro]

Hi,
Have a problem with my Golf TDI 130 and I'm starting to pull my hair out with it. :zx11: It has been overheating for 4-6 weeks now, and using a quite a lot of water, constantly refilling with 2-3 litres. However, nothing is leaking out.
For a while it was just overheating, and then the waterpump itself broke which resulted in overheating very quickly and loosing cabin temperature with the heater( i'm told the impellar came loose, so no water was being pumped around). That was replaced which made the car drivable and the cabin heater worked again, but I still have the occasional problem of overheating. I have been back to the garage 3 times now and they cannot find any fault. On the third occasion, they replaced the thermostat and are waiting for a new cap for the expansion tank, (foc I might add as they are testing the individual components), but it still got warm quickly.

The strange thing is that I can drive sensibly, sticking to speed limits ( which I do of course anyway!!), changing gear early, and I have no problems. But if i go to overtake someone or just speed up and put the engine under pressure, the temperature gauge will climb from its usually running temperature of 90° upto 120°+. At this point the engine becomes sloppy and unresponsive. Once I have slowed down, I will feel the power suddenly return and the temperature gauge will go down again.

With the new thermostat i experienced a new problem, I had driven into work and it had done the usual. But when I went out at lunch, the temp gauge climbed to 90°, and then dropped to hardly registering and temperature at all, and I lost cabin heat. It stayed like until I was on the way home in the eveing until I started to speed up and the temp gauge went over to 120°+ and i had to keep the speed under 40mph to stop from completely overheating.

It has been pressure tested on more than one occasion, and i'm told all is fine. My garage is not a VW dealer ( thinking I may need to go to one, but would rather not due to the stories I hear .

I'm having to rely on others now to get around which is not ideal, so i need to get this sorted. Any help would be appreciated. :1zhelp:

Thanks

Dan

[Boardboy]

I hate to say it but it sounds as though your head gasket could be going/gone. Is there any white smoke from the exhaust?
The fact you temperature gauge climbed to 90 and then dropped right down would surgest air in the system and the temperature sender is not surrounded with coolant. Same for the heater blowing cool, no hot water in it only air.
You can have the car checked to see if there are any hydrocarbons in the coolant.
The head gasket went on my MKII golf. At first it just used to loose a little water and finally about a litre on a long journey.
I had replaced the coolant cap but you could hear it venting via the cap after a long journey.
Regards Boardboy

[GolfPro]

Thanks Boardboy,
I'm taking it back to the garage tomorrow for one last try. Will give them your post to consider, they appreciate any help they can get at the moment!
Thanks again.
Dan

[GolfPro]

Apparently, when they were working on it last, an air pocket got in and caused the lack of temp then overheat.
They phoned around a few local garages for some ideas as to what is wrong, one of them being a diesel specialist. They said that the symptoms do suggest head gasket failure, even though the more recognised signs are not there ( white smoke from exhaust etc). The quote for repair is a total of £850 :zx11: to take everything apart and put together again and the cost of having the head gasket skimmed ( £295+vat alone ) and pistons cleaned (?). I appreciate this is a specialist job, but does the quote sound a lot? Currently deciding whether is will be cheaper to sell the car or have the work done and keep it.
Thanks
Dan

[adamss24]

Hi, the cooling system on any new car its self bleeding ! Have the garage do a cylinders pressure test with the engine hot. If there is a big difference between cylindres then you have a blown gasket. The diesel engines are overengineered and do not warp to such extent as cylinder heads on petrol engines and do not forget that the head is alloy and the main block its cast iron so they expand at different rates/temperatures. I bet they tested the pressure with the engine relativelly cold as diesels take long driving to heat. Anyway i think they looking for the usual blown head gasket signs: coolant in the oil(mayonaisse like on the oil cap), oil in the coolant(slimy sludge inside the header tank), coolant going on the exhaust...etc. These signs do not apply to diesels as when they overheat to such extent the piston rings are usually fried and the engine will start badly when cold due to low compression and it will smoke blue sign that the oil passes the rings and gets burned ! What its in your case is i believe the gasket is blown between cyl and when the engine its getting hot the compression passes(excape) from cyl to the cooling system and pressurise the system and when the water boils there is no cooling as it gets in a gas state hence your cabin heat loss and zero reading on the gauge. Get a genuine set of gaskets and head studs as they are stretch bolts and replace the gasket but have a compression test first. Hope this helps. Also would recomend going to a audi specialist as your TDI is a different kind of beast. Many diesel specialists have no clue how to fine tune a tdi and do not lissten to old mechanics to put mustard seeds or stop leak stuff. also check for orrange stains(crusty deposits) on the radiator and cooling hoses ! Enough sayd. Good luck.

[GolfPro]

Hi,
I have spoken to a few local garages myself and one in particular, a VW specialist, says that you do not skim a diesel engine. It depends on the grade the engine was skimmed to when manufactured ( does this make sense? ) otherwise the pistons could be hitting the top of the engine block. It makes sense, but I have conflicting information now, and one option is going to cost £350 more than the other.
I spoke to the local VW dealer, and they started quoting Vicky Pollard " yes. but. no. but". Non commital, but sort of confirms that you don't skim but can in certain circumstances.
Has anyone had this type of work carried out on their TDI? I would be interested to hear what other people have been told about this problem.
Many thanks,
Dan

[adamss24]

Hi,
I have spoken to a few local garages myself and one in particular, a VW specialist, says that you do not skim a diesel engine. It depends on the grade the engine was skimmed to when manufactured ( does this make sense? ) otherwise the pistons could be hitting the top of the engine block. It makes sense, but I have conflicting information now, and one option is going to cost £350 more than the other.
I spoke to the local VW dealer, and they started quoting Vicky Pollard " yes. but. no. but". Non commital, but sort of confirms that you don't skim but can in certain circumstances.
Has anyone had this type of work carried out on their TDI? I would be interested to hear what other people have been told about this problem.
Many thanks,
Dan
Mate, get a new head gasket fitted and forget about skimming the head as your vw specialist told you ! If in doubt, have the cyl head checked if true as diesels are overengineered compared with petrols and dont warp as easy. If the head is warped then it needs replacing as skimming will increase the compression ratio and its not recomended to a diesel engine plus when that happens the piston rings are fried and the engine will start hard and smoke badly and use oil ! Diesel engines have very litlle clearance between pistons and valves at TDC and depending on the engine codes, it may have a higher compression for a lower output engine or a lower compression ratio for a higher output engine or ,in the case of performance models, a high compression ratio+a bigger turbo+ upgraded internals to make for a bigger power/performance ! I hope you did not ADDED cold water to a hot engine !

[thefoolmccool]

Diesel heads can be skimmed if required, though as others are saying, this is not usually required unless the car was very badly overheated. And if this is the case the problem with rings discussed earlier will be you main problem. If a diesel head is being removed, a matched head gasket must be used. This compensates for the compression ratio if the head is skimmed.

My advice would be to remove the head, change the gasket (for the correct one - usually denoted by a series of notches or holes), do a lot of screwing and see if this does the trick. When off you can also get someone in your local machine shop to check the warpage of the head, the limits are in the haynes manual.

Kev

[GolfPro]

Hi again, it's been a while, but hopefully coming to the end of a very long journey.

There has been a catalogue of problems with my Golf. Essentially, the head gasket was going, causing temp fluctuations. At the same time, the water pump blew, sadly on a long journey my girlfriend was on and the car seriously overheated!! This caused a plastic tray in the oil reservoir ( sorry - don't know the correct name ) to melt and get sucked up into the oil pick up to the Turbo, which was starved of oil, and promply blew when everything else was fixed!!! Everything seems to be working now, only where I was getting 45mpg, I'm now getting 35mpg and the car is very lumpy in acceleration. Used to get 500 miles from a tank, no only get 420 miles, so quite a reduction. When accelearting the mpg will drop down to 10-15 mpg! I can feel the power trying to come through, it just can't. In a way, the car feel restricted by getting too much of something or too little of something. Still investiating the problem with the garage, all credit to them, they're willing to keep trying and have given me a loaner whenever I've needed one.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Other than selling it!! Invested too much now, and besides, I just enjoy driving it too much.

Thanks,

Dan

[tahir98]

HI
I have exactly the same problem as yours on my 115 gt tdi, its over heating and taking litres of water but i can't see where its going, did you manage to find the problem with yours? Did you get the head gasket done?
thanks