High pressure in coolant expansion tank?

[walejase]

Picked up the car today from another VAG specialist who still couldn't find the cause of the high pressure....

There's no exhaust gases apparently in the coolant tank and no evidence of leaks anywhere other than it bubbling over the top of the expansion tank.

So far I've replaced :-

Radiator

Expansion bottle & lid

Engine coolant sensor

So that's 2 garages that can't find the cause. Are there any other garages round the midlands anyone can recommend going to?

[JoshH]

Bowens having the same issues dude, it's a weird one!

We're replacing his head bolts with arl pd150 bolts tomorrow....will report back!

We also noticed that the bottom rad pipe on his struggles to get any heat in at all even after a ragging.

[walejase]

Yeah definitely post back JoshH. Circulation of the coolant and coolant temp is spot on in mine but I'm just hoping its not a full head gasket job. Especially when the cars only done 50k.

[walejase]

Bowens having the same issues dude, it's a weird one!

We're replacing his head bolts with arl pd150 bolts tomorrow....will report back!

We also noticed that the bottom rad pipe on his struggles to get any heat in at all even after a ragging.

Hi Josh,

Did you manage to get anywhere with this?

[JoshH]

No mate, darkside told us the head bolts were m14 spline bits, turned out we needed an m12!

You need a long spline bit so we special ordered it too lol

[Gobsheene]

The guys at at a VAG Indy round here suggested that this is likely to be a head gasket problem or the EGR cooler. Is it worth getting an EGR delete kit fitted and also go for the EGR cooler delete pipe?

http://www.darksided...polo-fabia.html

And

http://www.darksided...-pipe-51mm.html

You've probably realised this by now but VRS's dont have an EGR cooler

[JoshH]

BLTs certainly do mate

[walejase]

Yeap it's got an EGR cooler.

[walejase]

Update Time - The Fab went into Unit 18 yesterday and it is indeed the head gasket. Coolant found in the cylinders.....

So it's off the road for the rest of the week,

But on the upside, I'm also getting the cambelt/waterpump changed, fitting my hybrid PD130 turbo and a cheeky little Oscarli remap thrown into the mix!

[hutchysrs50]

Price for headgasket change?

And the big question... Are they skimming the cylinder head?

[walejase]

Price for headgasket change?

And the big question... Are they skimming the cylinder head?

Roughly £800 to replace head gasket which includes replacement of cambelt, water pump, head gasket, head bolts, fuel pump gasket, turbo gaskets, plus also includes sending the head away for crack and pressure testing plus re-seating the valves and re-adjustment of the injector rocker assembly. It will probably need skimming a bit, not sure till the head is sent off.

[hutchysrs50]

Not a bad price really. The biggest price in all them jobs is labour.

Hope all goes well and keep us informed

[Hammett]

Sorry to revive this one. I too am having this problem, my car has done 235k miles and is due timing belt change in 5k. Is it worth getting the head gasket replaced? I have been told that due to the age (2002) and mileage that a new gasket would probably but too much stress on the bottom of the engine! As timing belt is due it would only be another couple of 3 hundred pounds more to do. Failing that I may have to get rid, shame as rest of car is spotless and still looks great.

 

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

[SKYHAWK]

100% percent headgasket i had exactly the same problem

[gewstarr]

Oh gosh, I found this thread by conscience, and it matches my issue kind of well.

My 2003 Fabia ('BBY' engine) has needed a bit of coolant every now and then for the last two years.

Sometimes it holds up well for weeks, perhaps even a month or so, but then one day I see the level walk through the minimum line in the expansion tank.

Car has done >18000 kilometres and I'm not sure it's worth getting the head gasket replaced, if that would be the case.

Can't find any leaking hoses though, and no noticeable oil spill or bubbles in the expansion tank, just that pure light red long life glycol I usually top up with.

However, today I made something that was probably really stupid. I bought some cheap chemical fix that's said to seal leaks, prevent corrosion in the coolant, and also prevent head gasket leaks.

Most people agree that these sort of hocus pocus is a quick way of destroying your car, i.e. the stuff gets stuck in channels where it's not supposed to, and so on.

Anyways, I poured almost the entire bottle in and put the lid back on and let the car idle for 15~20 minutes with full heat on blower, like instructions told me.

Then I took it for a spin. Nothing weird, except for that the thick brown syrup have given the coolant inside the expansion tank more of a wine red color than the light red it had before.

Now, I just got back from a second test drive. Temperature going to the middle on the gauge, like supposed, and hot as well as cold works on the blower.

One weird thing I noticed though, when blower on max I hear this noise from somewhere. It's like whirling, low-pitched, really weird.

I'm afraid I've reached the beginning of the end. I really hope the noise is not what I suspect it is — the water pump struggling.

Anyways, I have no-one but myself to blame. I'll holler if it breaks completely, like tomorrow.

Cheers!

[Hammett]

Well just over 6000 miles later it's till running, had to top coolant up a couple of times. Have been driving it at 60 on way to work and back. But need to find out why it leaks when I give it the beans so getting getting pressure test tomorrow, fingers crossed they find something.

[SKYHAWK]

Yeah when I boot it it goes quicker but when driving slow will come on maybe once a week quite annoying really tbh

HEADGASKET M8 100% exactly the same as mine drive it nice fine for a few weeks boot it down a byepass 3rd 4th gear light comes on

[Hammett]

Well mine still running 12,000 miles after first noticing the leak. I ended up putting in some k seal which fixed my temp guage fluctuating a couple of degrees under 90deg. I find there seems to be a sweet spot in the amount of coolant I put in, if too much then pressure builds up quicker and leaks. Another issue with k seal is that I think it's buggered up the coolant level sensor which doesn't help, going to give it a scrape with screwdriver to see if it helps. Just had a basic service (didn't do timing belt) so probably just drive it now till it finally gives up.

[Jaspire]

Mine lasted a year, nearly 30000 miles like that. I knew it was headlift so just stayed off the boost, never lost a drop. Only got it fixed in September [emoji2]

Sent from my Hudl 2 using Tapatalk

[Torbo]

In the Haynes manual there is nothing about changing the bolts!

 

I have the same problem now, but I think the problem is the tasked under the cylinders or a crack in the cylinder? I will test with a HC-instrument tomorrow i the bowler (fish boll)...

I have just changed the gasket but the cooling tubes is very hard! ?? I will also test the pressure wit a instrument...  Im not sure what the pressure shall be? But may be some cal tell me?

The head gasket was real gone... but...

 

Edited 2 August, 2017 by Torbo