Just how common is the porous head issue?

[danb986]

Hi everyone,

I'm just in the process of buying a January 2005 A3 2.0 TDi and I've scared myself silly reading the threads about porous heads.

From what I gather, January '05 engines could still be affected. But what I'm wondering is, just how common is it? I've read about a dozen threads on it, but I imagine there are millions of these engines out there and they can't all be problematic otherwise it'd be all over the news. Am I just over-worrying and the chances are in my favour that my engine will be fine?
Also, the car has done 88,000 miles, so would it have thrown up a problem by now? Will all of the problem engines have been sorted by now?

Thanks,
Dan

[Mike Foster]

You are right in that there are millions of BKD engines running around and it was only the early ones with suffix 'A' that were most often a problem.

You need to check for coolant loss for no apparent reason i.e no leaks to see if the head is affected.

My Aug 2005 reg (2006 MY ) is a suffix 'B' and has not been a problem but I was worried after reading all the posts.

Remember that people only post if they have a problem, not if everything is ok but you can bet that there are many more that are ok than are not !

Good luck with the purchase and if you're buying from a dealer make sure he knows that you are aware of the problem and that you would expect a reasonable lengh of time to check if the problem becomes apparent.

[danb986]

Thanks for the advice and sensible words.
I'm one of lifes worriers, so things like this just work around my head and stress me out.
It almost put me off the A3 and I started looking at the 1 series BMW. I'm not a big fan of them, but they seem to have a bit more power and more equipment.

The '05 model A3 I was looking at fell through because when I saw it in the flesh the paintwork was terrible, but I've decided to stick with looking for an A3, but hopefully one a year or so newer so it definitely doesn't have head issues.

Where would I look to see whether the next one I go to see has an A or B suffix?
Thanks again.

[Mike Foster]

You woulld need to remove the engine cover and look at the number which is underneath the fuel feed pipes and stamped into the head.

Stop worrying so much - you'd have to be unlucky to get a bad one !!

Good luck with the search.