Am I head gasket paranoid?

[bartonthesparta]

I just bought what I thought was a bargain A4 yesterday, drove 20 miles home no problem but then noticed it splutters like hell and nearly dies if I try to accelerate hard below 3000 revs. Also blows some white smoke maybe steam if revved in neutral, though the exhaust isn't hot so possibly just condensation getting blasted out?. drives fine at high revs and the coolant doesn't appear oily, it doesn't overheat and the oil hasn't turned to mayonaise yet. Its my first car and Im no expert, Im just terrified it might be something major and thats why the previous owner sold it.

Any suggestions?

Cheers in advance

[Col]

We need to know what car, what engine and what transmission it has.

[robdx]

Hi Bart,
I don't want to give you the wrong answer, but merely look at other possible diagnosis of your prob. Could well be a case of wrong fuel in the car?
During a two year post with a vehicle hire firm, anything showing symptoms like yours, turned out to be either head gasket or wrong fuel.
At the other end of the stick, lets hope I'm totally wrong & its a case of something small and cheap to replace. Good luck

[bartonthesparta]

Its a 1.8 20v no turbo, manual transmission p-reg. Thats all I know at the moment.

[bartonthesparta]

Cheers rob, it has been sat for a few weeks apparently and its below a quarter tank in it, possibly down to dregs. as soon as my insurance cert turns up and I can tax it I'll get some fresh stuff in and see what happens. I just dont want to render it beyond repair by driving it if something is very wrong with it

[Col]

If it were mine, the first thing I'd do is perform a basic service on it, which you can do yourself i.e oil & oil filter, air filter etc.

However with regard to the problem, if you search on here the advice you will get is to get it scanned for fault codes, look in the vagcom sub-forum on here for someone to help.

Until you get it scanned all advice is a guess.

My guess to your problem would be faulty coil pack(s).

[Crasher]

I would also get it read for fault codes and as for the poor throttle response, check this operating rod behind the cover on the front of the inlet manifold.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/Crasher1964/manifold.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/Crasher1964/armwitharrows.jpg