Sharpy64

So been over to my mates shed, bypassed the new egr cooler and the issue remains, so it’s off with its head! There’s a place not far from me that a mate uses for his racing car heads and they’ll pressure test it for cracks and if it passes will check it for warps and if needed skim it. So onwards. The thought of having to pay a garage to do all of this is terrifying, might take me a bit longer but at least it’s a whole lot cheaper.

Droning noises are often wheel bearing or tyre issues. That is where I would start, are the tyres okay, any odd wear patterns / feathering on the inner edges, if they are okay then id be checking the wheel bearings.

If it has LED the pattern is usually flat and no action is needed, if bi-xenon then there is often an option that allows you to change the drive pattern, if its Halogen lights then deflectors will be needed.

Im not hopeful! Ha!

Just been chatting to my mate and we are going to bypass the egr cooler first, this is because the condition got a lot worse after we fitted that so there is a chance that its a bad new part, so to avoid taking the head off without proper diag this seems like a sensible approach. If its still doing it then we have confirmed its not the egr cooler and can move on to the HG.

Thats what I reckon, so back to my mates shed to take the head off and see whats going on. Worst case a new engine, if the blocks cracked, best case just a new HG! Based on how its gone so far I feel like it'll be a new engine... so might just throw a Golf R engine it it.

This was a pretty big clue. 😂 IMG_8936.mov I suspect all the parts I replaced had issues and that has made this condition worse as it was relatively okay with the leaky egr cooler and leaky charge cooler.

Well…. Nuts… So it’s time to take the head off then.

So, here we are back to square one. Didnt even need to do a long drive and the wheel arch and area around the coolant bottle is soaking wet with coolant. Going to start with diag again and do a sniff test. It ahs to be combustion gasses in the coolant.

Been a little while as I’ve been out of the country. I’ve replaced the thermostat with an original VAG one and I now have coolant flow through the main radiator, also replaced the charge cooler as it was off to do the thermostat anyway. My mates been driving it about while I’ve been away and so far so good, although no long journeys to really test it. Next up is a long drive (90mins) and see if the coolant now stays inside the coolant system. Should also add the expansion tank I got from NAPA leaked anyway so not sure that was a valuable diagnostic asset.

Thanks, does seem like a common failure point! I’ve not been able to get back to the car last few days but hopefully will sort it next week!

Just didn’t sniff test, up to full temp and on power for 3 mins, liquid stayed blue. So hoping that’s a positive sign.

What is annoying is that I cannot replicate the condition when stationary, but I did have the temperature showing on the infotainment screen on one of the trips and it never waivered from 90degs.

The biggest saving grace for me is I do all the work myself, I cannot imagine the cost of doing all of this at a garage, spent 3 hrs diagnosing alone yesterday. I intend to document the process I went through and hopefully the solution once its resolved to hopefully help others, although there seems to be so many similar issues around cooling systems!

Thats a fair shout, its is sounding a little "gritty". Thanks.