A4 2005 - TDi - White Smoke - Gasket or EGR - 122K

[nkarnold]

Chaps,

I hope someone can advise me. First of all I'm not that car savvy.

My A4 2005 TDi (122K miles) started pumping out white smoke and I was loosing coolant like a thirsty camel.

1st conclusion was the head gasket, so I took it to a local garage, who did some tests and came back with.

It could be the gasket, it could be the EGR that's gone and is just letting water into the exhaust, which gives the same effect of pumping out white smoke (steam)
They said, they could do a smoke test, but this would need another 2-3 hours of work to get down to the EGR, take it off and do this test.

1) Is there an easy way to check if my problem is the EGR. I don't even know where the EGR is, as I've read if I take this off and look for water/oil, it would point to the EGR.

Other observations
- Engines sounds fine
- No apparent power loss, but occasionally is appears to judder when starting.
- White smoke doesn't smell oily, but it doesn't smell just like steam either.

2) If it turns out to be the head gasket and there is no other damage, the garage is saying that it would be in excess of 2K to fix. Is this realistic ?

I don't have a huge amount of cash to throw at it and I'm reluctant to keep having to pay for a garage to tell me, 'well it could be this or it could be this'.

Any help much appreciated

Sad Audi Owner :-(

[adamss24]

Change the EGR cooler first, if it's rusted then it can do that, if the EGR cooler is fine then it's heads off job !

[sar02]

Look for a mobile mechanic, if your car has no warranty then do not throw money at a VW/Audi dealer when it can be done a lot cheaper by a fully qualified mechanic that works for hisself out of a mobile workshop.

[davidlandy]

dont want to scaremonger but mine had those symptoms, started by losing a bit of coolant with no noticable smoke or power loss. Then the smoke started to be visible and it lost coolant at an alarming rate.

Turned out to be a cracked cylinder head unfortunately.