Hi ive got a build up of black soot in the coolant tank and getting pressure in the system when taking off the coolant tank cap in the morning when engine is cold it still releases a heavy hiss of air escaping, also when turning ignition on or off get a gurgling sound from behind dashboard.

Im hoping this is a broken egr cooler and not the head gasket so to check i want to bypass the egr cooler , the dpf and egr are already mapped out .

As anybody on here bypassed the coolant pipes on the egr cooler on here before ? If so what size pipe do I need ? Is it possible to do from top of the engine or do you need to get underneath it ?

Need to get underneath it. Think the pipes are around 20mm internal diameter. About to try something this weekend. Will update you if it works

So, did this myself today. Likewise, dpf and egr are mapped out. Car has been using coolant since about 100k miles. Now on 180k and worse than ever after changing everything but the head gasket. This is the last chance before I get rid of it.

Link below to the connector I used. You need under the car to get at the bottom coolant hose on the egr cooler and the top hose from the top of the engine. Once both are disconnected the connector piece is just about long enough to bring the two hoses together. You will probably make a mess even with hose clamps to try stop the flow. If you don’t have the vw hose clamp pliers for removing the hose clamps you might struggle

https://vehicleclips.co.uk/products/20mm-car-heater-breather-hose-connector-straight-nylon-pa66