Passat Brakes

**Crasher** · 08-07-2008,03:53 PM

Fooled you too then

**emcs2** · 13-07-2008,11:02 AM

Originally Posted by Crasher

It is a recall at Audi; the recall involves pushing a bit of wire through the drain tube.

I think I have the same issue with an Audi A4 - First the brakes failed from cold start so I called the RAC - RAC did some tests, revved the engine hard, and then the engine went bang. They found that the area holding the battery and ECU had filled with water due to blocked drainage somewhere (possibly due to leaves but not sure yet) and somehow that water has got into the engine causing hydrolocking. They suspect permanent engine damage now and probably broken ECU - £££££.

Two questions:

1. Crasher - when you say "It is a recall at Audi" - do you have a reference number for this recall or anything formal you can point me to pls? The garage is still looking at it but are obviously warning of a v v high bill.

2. The insurance company (Admiral) are saying they won't cover it - has anybody ever had this type of issue paid up on insurance and on what basis (eg Act of God?) ?

Thanks in advance

ed

**Crasher** · 13-07-2008,01:55 PM

The vacuum pump could draw water from the servo but could not ingest it into the inlet system, what happened to you sounds like diesel runaway, did the engine just tear off to max revs and would not stop? This can happen due to oil collecting in the boost pipe work which gets ingested uncontrollably until the engine goes bang. What is the A4, year and engine code?

**emcs2** · 13-07-2008,02:09 PM

Hi Crasher - thanks for your reply. Sorry no - the engine didn't tear to max revs at all; when I had the brake failure I ran the engine only very slowly, as I was just moving off from parking - at this speed it seemed ok. When the RAC guy came, he pushed the accelerator down to rev the engine and then the engine stopped aggressively with a loud bang. He took the spark plugs out and looked into the cylinders and saw water. He then ran the engine without the plugs to clear the water out of the engine and water got ejected out of each cyclinder at high pressure. Once he had got rid of as much water as possible, he started the engine again - it ran for a while with a lot of tapping noises then it died. Hence the concern around physical engine damage - rods and/or cylinder.....

root cause still sounded like the build up of water in the area that holds the battery; but we couldn't understand how this water got into the engine .....

Oh: car specs: Audi A4 2.0 Litre Petrol Multitronic; 2002 chasis, Y reg - how do I find the engine code?

**Crasher** · 13-07-2008,06:00 PM

OK, I thought it was a diesel. The petrol engine can draw water directly from the servo as the vacuum is mainly developed by the engine inlet rather than by a mechanical pump but that amount of water could be head gasket instead. Your car may have an additional electric vacuum pump which is necessary on cars with the Multichroinc to maintain a steady vacuum level. I would have checked the water to see if it was clear or coolant. So now the engine will not run? The engine code is on the vehicle data sticker in the service book or in the boot. I would expect the engine code to be ALT, the gearbox code EVE or FSF and the model code maybe 8E2 0BH.

**emcs2** · 13-07-2008,07:26 PM

Last time we tried, the engine ran for a while (with tapping) before stopping as soon as the accelerator was pressed. Don't want to try again to minimise any damage (although it already appears maybe too late). I'll check the engine code as soon as I can (the car's at the garage presently). I guess I'm still also eager to know if whether there is an Audi reference number for the recall re plenum chamber drainage that I can raise with them? - I can't find any formal documentation on the web. Many thanks.....

**Crasher** · 13-07-2008,09:39 PM

I can’t see that much water being drawn from the servo all of a sudden. An easy way to check would be to release the master cylinder from the servo. As this is way below the level of the vacuum connection, water would have to be way above the master cylinder to cause this. If no water is present, you are on the wrong track and the problem has nothing to do with water in the plenum chamber. I fear the straws you are grasping at may be slippery ones.

**markham** · 30-07-2009,02:24 PM

I posted this on another thread, looks like we had the exact same issue!!! Did you get anywhere with VW, I haven't been in touch with theem yet, got my re-call letter a few weeks back.

Probably going to embarrass myself but hey Ho! I know nothing about mechanics.
Anyway I had to have my engine replaced after it blew up because water had got into the engine, the mechanic thought that the cylinder head was cracked but when it was removed there was no sign of any cracks, he replaced the engine with a second hand A4 engine which ended up costing me well over 2 grand, He said bring it back in a week and we'll change the oil and filters, when I did he discovered that there was water in the new engine.......

To cut a long story short, the cavity between the windscreen and the engine bay bulkhead was full of water.... there is a pipe that goes from the brake cylinder through the engine bay bulkhead into the top of the engine, he said it was a breather pipe?!!?! anyway he thought the brake cylinder was pumping the water through the breather pipe directly into the engine! Is this possible....... if so surely this design fault has killed my engine and does this make VW liable?
Cheers any thoughts would be appreciated

**vroooOOOM** · 19-04-2010,07:27 PM

I've not had any probs yet but did notice a few years back the tray filling up with water, found the plenums and cleaned em, I notice that every autum is the favorate time for the plenums to block with leafs.