Audi A4 Avant 1997 - Head gasket gone?

[ste.richards]

It's very chilly in the UK at the moment, -4 over night and I had problems with the heaters this morning. I should add before I go any further that there was no anti freeze in my coolant system


I left my car ticking over for 5 minutes to warm up the heaters but no hot air was coming out. Drove it a few miles and still the air was freezing cold. Pulled over and I noticed that steam was coming from the overflow in the water reservoir. I filled the system up with water and anti freeze and everything seemed fine. 5 miles later I heard what sounded like somebody spraying a water pistol at metal. I opened the bonnet and water was bubbling inside the reservoir and steam was coming out of the over flow again. I filled it back up and the above happened again.

My first suspicion is that the head gasket has gone. Can you suggest a way to test this?

Thanks, Stephen

[Simon@DTUK]

It's very chilly in the UK at the moment, -4 over night and I had problems with the heaters this morning. I should add before I go any further that there was no anti freeze in my coolant system


I left my car ticking over for 5 minutes to warm up the heaters but no hot air was coming out. Drove it a few miles and still the air was freezing cold. Pulled over and I noticed that steam was coming from the overflow in the water reservoir. I filled the system up with water and anti freeze and everything seemed fine. 5 miles later I heard what sounded like somebody spraying a water pistol at metal. I opened the bonnet and water was bubbling inside the reservoir and steam was coming out of the over flow again. I filled it back up and the above happened again.

My first suspicion is that the head gasket has gone. Can you suggest a way to test this?

Thanks, Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Check to see if you have the dreaded white stuff in your water tank and in the filler cap for the engine oil first.
If you dont it may be just that you have some ice in the system stopping the water flowing around your engine and its just heating up and boiling in one part of the engine.
I had this the other day with a friends car and now its fine after it had warmed through and melted it all.
I had it last year on my BMW i have but i wasnt so lucky because when the ice started to melt a big ish piece flowed through and snapped the impellors off my water pump coz they are soft plastic on them.
Not sure if they are metal or plastic on your car ( they were metal on my old audi S2 )but im sure someone else on here will be along and may be able to tell you.

Hope this helps a bit.

[ste.richards]

There is a slight bit of mayo on the filler cap but that has been there since I had the car (2 months and 4,600 miles ago). I've assumed that the car has had HG failure in the past but has none now as there is no mayo on the oil dipstick or the engine oil cap.

I'll wipe away the mayo from the water reservoir cap and see if any reappears.

I did notice the water pipe that leaves the engine and enters the radiator was hot until several centimetres before hitting the radiator. I'm hoping there is an ice blockage there as I would expect a hot pipe all the way to the radiator.

Thanks for your help so far, Stephen

[ste.richards]

Just to let you know that the problem has now cleared. I imagine it was, as you suggested, some ice stuck in the system.

I've put anti freeze into the system and hope to learn a lesson from all of this

Thanks for your help,

[Paddy27]

Just for info i believe they are plastic impellers, i know my TDI is.