So I bought my mk1 Octavia vRS just over 15 months ago for £1500.00 - made me a very happy guy!

Spec:

2001 rally red 1.8T 180bhp

130000 miles

7months T&T

Completely standard

Since owning I've spend £££'s on:

Big grooved and drilled discs all round along with new pads

4 new tyres

New clutch

2 new front wheel Hubs

New rear shock absorbers

New starter motor

Recond rear vRS green brake calipers x2

Pipercross panel air filter

Pipercross breather filter

Track rod ends x2

Suspension bushes

ect...ect.....ect......

Always ran with v-power (well 90% of the time) and never ragged silly. Serviced regularly.

I've invested £££'s into my baby and she really was my baby, I loved her :love:

I had plans to tidy her up and poss a remap...

But................ Out of the blue 1 morning I came out to go to work and when I started it the Coolant light (red) came on with the warning beep... but the car was cold??? I then checked to discover there was a mucky brown milkshake like substance in the collant tank!!? Thick(ish) and creamy like. Upon furhter investigation - no oil at all on the dipstick?! I've tried to drain the collant system but only a little water trickled out of the drain valve?! Suspected blockage.

I'm at a complete loss to be honest guys - I dont know what to do!! I'm carless!! I have too many financial difficulties at the minute to just throw money at her, I just cant afford to!

I need my car not only for work but for when I have my kids at the weekend!!

I'm guessing a head gasket at £400-500 plus whatever else may coincide

I'm sorry to share my problems with you guys but I think I'm just in a shadowy part of my life with personal problems at the minute so this could'nt have happened at a much worse time. I guess I'm looking for a miracle...has the time come to cut my losses?

Any help at all would really be appreciated please guys...is there anything I could do to salvage?

Thanks and sorry for droning on,

Darren

Sorry for some of the spelling - wrote it in a hurry.

First of all before you spend any money taking it to a garage say, disconnect you water hoses and give them a good flushing through, making sure no splits where water would of come out. Also do the same to radiator, flush out and make sure sealed.

Also you could get a compression test done to make sure that it hasn't blown the head.

And then go from there.

Next step I would say is change the head gasket yourself, get a Haynes manual which can guide you step by step and so on

Not sure if this is spot on everyone feel free to input if I missed anything/got anything wrong

Will

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Has it been losing water recently?

Also possible because the engine hasn't been cooled properly recently its burnt off the oil in the block?

As suggested flush through the hoses and check the if the rad needs replacing. My Polo's rad was knacked and it wasn't cooling effectively, it did start to use a fair bit of oil.

He has oil and water mixing sadly which is usually bad news. Flush through and then ask a suitable mechanic to do a pressure test on the coolant and cylinders I would guess.

Burnt off oil?

Do the vrs have a oil cooler thats connected to thhe cooling system ? sometimes they fail and dump the oil into the cooling system !

Do the vrs have a oil cooler thats connected to thhe cooling system ? sometimes they fail and dump the oil into the cooling system !

Yes, there is an oil cooler and a failure would cause this problem. You need to drop the oil and see what that is like.

Yes, there is an oil cooler and a failure would cause this problem. You need to drop the oil and see what that is like.

Mk2,s are like this too and nine times out of ten its the oil cooler.

HI guys, I really appreciate all your help. I'm taking it to my Brothers tomorrow afternoon via a recovery truck. He's fairly mechanic minded. I'm going to do as Will suggested and flush the system.

No water lost recently though just the oil, the dipstick was bone dry?!

Will also look into getting the pressure test as per Liverpool Lad.

An oil cooler would certainly be cheaper than the worst case!

Thanks again guys, honestly!

I'll update tomorrow evening.

Good luck m8, think it's all of ours worst nightmare lol

If the engine is goosed I think billy has a good one for sale, brought loads of stuff off him and he's one of the best sellers out there

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Good luck

It doesn't look good tbh

Flushed the system out yesterday - 99% all clear. I then refilled coolant and oil (no warning lights what-so-ever) - within 5 mins the gooey brown milkshake like substance was back and the oil was gone!

my next step is to get a pressure test done, which I was going to try and arrange today, but considering it's bank holiday will have to wait until tomorrow.

Thanks again guys.

I reckon your head gasket is away.

Sounds like your oil cooler to me,flush the system out again & by pass the cooler & see what happens,i had this on a tdi & a new cooler fixed it,took some cleaning out though.

Sounds like your oil cooler to me,flush the system out again & by pass the cooler & see what happens,i had this on a tdi & a new cooler fixed it,took some cleaning out though.

Easyer to get the Cylenders pressure tested first, Cheeper than all that coolant and oil.

Pressure test the block, I would hope this is cooler as 5min to empty all the oil into the cooling system is a BIG head gasket break.

Sounds like your oil cooler to me,flush the system out again & by pass the cooler & see what happens,i had this on a tdi & a new cooler fixed it,took some cleaning out though.

+1

Connect the coolant lines together and see if oil comes out of the cooler. If you need to drive the car to test, put a loop of hose on the cooler connections.

If you still get oil in the coolant, then it's the HG or a crack in the head/block.

Well a mechanic - highly recommended by family reckons it could well be the cooler. So with that being an easier (and cheaper) option I'm picking up a new oil cooler tonight and he's going to try sort it tomorrow for me. Fingers crossed guys!

Out of curiosity - the oil is getting into the coolant, not the other way around (no mayo or anything where the oil goes??)?? Does that make a difference to anything??

Thanks,

Daz

Easyer to get the Cylenders pressure tested first, Cheeper than all that coolant and oil.

Pressure test the block, I would hope this is cooler as 5min to empty all the oil into the cooling system is a BIG head gasket break.

Sorry i didnt make it clear - I'd only put small amount of oil in (all I had at the time) barely registered on the dipstick, just to see what happened.

Just an update guys - ..............head gasket.

A mechanic who's sort of a family friend has sympathised with me and offered to replace the gasket, skim the head, poss a new radiator for around £400.00 - I'm presuming thats a very good offer? Fingers crossed my baby comes back end of this week.....

Thanks again for your help and advice guys.

Daz

Sounds good. Was the cambelt/pump due for renewal? Would be a good time to get done too.

would be crazy to not do the cambelt/water pump done when the head is off anyway.

Sorry I forgot to mention - yes this will be getting done also.

Also newly discovered that the valves are getting machined as they were "a little fecked" so it was also loosing compression!

I've been quoted an all in cost of £550.00 - I cannot complain at all. Just cant wait to get her back now!! :sun:

Bill so far includes:

New gasket + kit

Head skim

cambelt kit + water pump

rad taken off and thoroughly flushed / replaced

New exhaust valve

All valves machined

Labour

fresh coolant and fully snyth

£550.00 all inclusive = a very happy and excited boy lol

^{It's about time something went my way lol}

Looks like a very decent price imho! After this she won't need another look for quite a while I think

Just read this post, always bad news if oil and water start mixing.

I had exactly same thing happen with my old Rover 214sei. I ignored it and kept topping up the water (oil level didnt go down, infact seemed to go up).

Eventually engine gave up the ghost and wouldnt start, my own stupid fault.

Our 1.8t engines are a lot more hardy and it looks like you have caught it in time.

Good Luck with the repairs