Head gasket or oil cooler?

[broonie86]

Hi all, i have a '98 a4 2.8 quattro saloon,

i was just out at it to start it up as i have not driven it in about 3 months due to not needing it,

after 10 minutes the heaters were blowing warm air but none of the temp guages had gone up and when i checked under bonnet there was an occasionall puff of smoke coming from under the expansion tank, i thought this was the rocker gasket and had ordered one of them a while back but never fitted it yet,

i checked the coolant and there was a thin layer of oil in there and also some mayo on the inside of the oil cap,

i have had a search through the forum to see how much of a job it is to replace the head gasket myself as im not too bad with a spanner,

but while i was searching there are alot of posts saying that oil in the water is 99% down to the oil cooler? if there is mayo on the oil cap does thet mean it is my head gaskets? or could it be the oil cooler?

any help is greatly appreciated,

thanks, Alan

[NickPicks]

If you haven't driven it for 3 months, the mayo could just be down to condensation.

[Crasher]

Clean the cap and rinse the tank out and see if it happens again.

[broonie86]

should have maybe stated that when i started the car the water warning light came on and the service light near the odometer,

could my water pump have packed up causing the head gasket to fail?

it was also occasionally using some water when i was using it alot, not a scary amount just had to top it up once a week or so

sorry, i should have put that in first post