MoonlightVR6

Na it has had some in there

Its been off the road for a while now. I suspected it for a while beforehand then as was monitering the oil cap and level noticed that it looked like it had mixed, so it has not moved it since.

the car is on approx 68000

How much would one expect to pay for the head gasket to be fixed, (maybe a minimum to maximum range)? Also when they have the head off is there anything worth doing at the same time. The guy I was speaking to to says I may as well do the timing chains at the same time as they needed to come off to get at it anyways, also he said he may need to get to take the gearbox off and that I should get the clutch done then too, how much should I expect to put aside to fix these additional issue???

Hi Goldf1ng3r, thanks for the advice. I will leave it as is then. I thought that if the water is getting in the oil, it maybe best to stop them mixing further... Sadly no mechanic, I'm based in Ruislip, its on the outskirts of N/W London. Do you know anyone who maybe able to help me out with her?

Do you think I should drain all the oil and coolant etc in the meantime? Can it mix further if its not used or will the damage be the same if its all left in there?

Roughtly, whats the worst case scenario, will it need to be completely re-built?

I think the gasket must have finaly given way completley as I am almost cirtain there is some water in the oil now too. What do you think, up until yesterday it was a golden brown/blacky and now its got a creamy tinge to it. [ATTACH=CONFIG]79359[/ATTACH] :-(

Ahh man, I think she is in a bad way. @Jim. Mine sounds similar, It has been running a bit lumpy in the mornings for about a month, but not for much time - until about 80degrees. Prior to that it was just the coolant loss. The last maybe 3 days, its been doing that 'lumpy, going too slow in this gear feeling'at low revs, maybe upto 2000-2500 revs, when it should be smooth, then past that point it ran smoother. Wierd, geting worse I reckon. (I ruled out the cap today as it was leaking from there, didn't do much as far as I am aware as it was still loosing fluid, but not out the cap as the fluid trail under valve hole on the expansion tank was still clean. Drove it carefully home from work, lost about litre - 1.5. Later when I went to sainsburies (approx 2-2.5 miles) I topped it few mms past max before I left. I got to the shop ok, albeit the lumpy low revs. Then came out and it wouldn't start to come home. The ignition came on and the dash lit up but it wouldn't turnover, nothing. Then by the 3rd try (its always normally first go, within about a second) it sort of made a weird noise like it was about turnover but got stuck then suddenly it went bang, like a single heavy clunk/thud sort of sound, I thought utoh that wasn't good. Then tried it again, did the same thing after the thud i had the key still trying to start it and it was just sapping battery not even turning over (the dash lights were going dimmer, until ignition was released). I did't know what to do, I dont have rac/aa and my phone was at home. I didn't want to get a ticket or towed away to pound at all either. I was a bit distraught if honest. It wasn't turning over at all so I thought maybe its the starter siezed or something as the battery & oil were good, coolant low but drivable and it was running like less than 10 mins before. I rolled it backwards about 3 inches and dropped the clutch, I dont even know it that would unsieze it? (haha I shouldn't laugh) Then it started when i tried it with the key. But it was pretty damn lumpy, and smoking like a trooper! Moorso than in the morning, and it was getting close to running temp from driving up there. Limped it home, and shes in a coma outside. :-( She's gunna need a bit of open heart surgery, I'm just praying she'll pull through and the same for my wallet.

I cleaned my MAF with some air intake cleaner from allparts, I cained the whole can on it and it seems to have sorted my issue of pressing the clutch, and then as the revs drop, rather than leveling/choking itself off, they just continue to drop almost to the point of stalling, then bounces back up to normalish idle speed. Sometimes this stalled the car completley, stopping the brakes and steering from working (which is dangerous). Other times it just almost stalled and the battery light comes on for like 1/3rd of a second then it speeds back up to idle speed, narrowly jus missing stalling itself. That seems to have been sorted by cleaning my MAF, although I only drove it today so time will tell. The other thing I have noticed its doing which the MAF clean hasn't changed, is pulling away at low revs, normally it pulls away fine as long as I am above 1000 rpm( or the line below it), but below that, depending on gear it will go jolty/bumpy as if its going to stall, which it is. I noticed this pulling away from like 1-2mph in 2nd, I think thats normal. After you go past the 1000rpm speed its fine. Last week say, its been doing this upto about 25000 revs which isn't normal. Any idea as to what that could be? I saw someone post about loosing power upto 25000rpm and they mentioned they had idle issues, could his be the same thing starting to break/happen?

I replaced the cap today and topped it up few mm past max before leaving work, got home and it had burned its way down to about an inch below the min marker, once cooled back down. I couldn't see a trail of the fluid leaking out of the cap/valve so I think that sorted that but its still loosing a lot of coolant, at leat 1.5 litres over a 7mile(hour) drive, I cant see any other traces so I am sure its internal. How can I tell is the headgasket has gone without seeing any mayo substance? I read somewhere about oil in the water and I cant really tell but it desn't have bubbles of oil sitting on the top or anything. I am sure when I opened the coolant cap I thought I smelt a faint waft of petrol for a couple of seconds? Could this be the sign that the gasses are getting into the water system from the block? Whats my next step to diagnose a headgasket? Will it show up on the VW fault computer?

Oh right I thought there was 2 one in the cap and one in the expansion tank (well 2 on the tank actually). I couldn't see how the cap would feed the excesss out into those two holes on the side, so just assumed there would be 2. I have the cap on order so I will let you know the prognosis after its run with it on.

Yes my current cap is blue too. I will deffo try and get a new one of these before anything else. Is there any chance the cap could be ok and its actually the valve on the expansion tank thats dudd?

what is a MAF?

Yes actually, I noticed it shortly after one of my battery terminals worked itself loose. However I noticed what you said about stalling while putting it in neutral as I'm coming upto roundabouts etc. Before this came loose. Not a lot but it does do it occasionally. Basically if I am coming upto a roudabout, and I put it in neutral it sometimes stalls itself the same way it nearly stalls itself in my vid, kind of de-revving itself. If its in gear its fine though, but then will actually stall as I'm going toop slow... Hmmm

[ATTACH=CONFIG]78879[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]78880[/ATTACH] the image of the rust patches on the pump, I think has been fixed with the jubilee. The second image you can see where its coming out of the expansion tank. The rust shows the path of the fluid. Does this mean the cap has deffinatley broke?

Does the cap have a seperate relief valve to the one on the tank itself (under that black cover thing with g14 or something written onit?)or does the cap and that valve on the side of expander work together?

MINE DOES EXACTLY THE SAME, DOES YOURS DO THIS FOR THE FIRST MINUTE SAY OF RUNNING?

Hi Guys, thanks for the pointers. I do not know how to check for high pressure. I did notice the yesterday after driving about a fair bit that when I turned off the engine the air release valve was letting air out slowly, or this could be a pinhole leak around the rim part. But some sort of gas was escaping from somewhere aroundn the expansion tank. I am not sure how you'd judge if the coolant pipes were expended, but they were pretty hard (not soft and plyable like when the engine is cold), and hot as hell to the touch. You cant squeeze them like when its cold, well maybe by like 1 or 2mm at most. Funnily enough I also noticed that when I put the air fan on I got a very feint smell of coolant. I don't know if this is vapour coming out the air-release hole on the expansion tank and then getting sucked into the behind of the dashm, as thats in close proximity, so I thought it could be from that. It could also be remnamts from about 5 years ago when the heater matrix blew. I don't know if this helps identify anything. @Stone jag, whats the proceedure to test if I am getting gasses in the coolant? Shoukld there be any other tell tale signs? I will try the cardboard trick tonight and let you know the results. I will inspect the radiator some more later on today.

I suspect my VR6 has a duff head gasket or a leak somewhere but I am completely baffled as to the cause, location etc... It has been loosing Coolant but more than I'd expect it to consume just driving about. Eg I work about 7 miles away, but with traffic it takes about 45-1hr to get there, each way. Say over 2 days, so about 4 hrs of running, it has gone down to about halfway between the min level and bottom or expander - way below min level. When topping back up its about 1/3 to 1/2 of a litre, so a fair bit. I have to do this like 2-3 times a week. Initially I thought head gasket, but I do not have the white mayo on the oil cap or in the coolant expander or oil dip stick? Hmmm When started up its fairly smokey until it heats up, this is a whitey-greyish smoke, I'd say more white. When hot it looks about normal, not really smokey at all. When hot it sits about 92-94 on the gauge, I have noticed in the last week or so that in gridlock it goes upto about 97-99, but when I move off it quickly goes back down to normal'ish 92 - 94, If I was on motorway it goes down even further maybe to 75-80ish. It hasn't really been driving differently so I thought it could be leaking from somewhere else within the cooling system, a pipe or join... As the system hasn't been flushed for a while there is like a rusty sediment on the sides of the expander and I assume in the coolant pipes. I'd like to flush this out but for the time being it makes it easy to identify any leaks, as once dried you can see the rust marks that was in the fluid... The expander seems to get wet around where its sealed together (around the circumference), is this possible to split/break back into 2 parts, both the top and bottom? I can see its been getting pushed out of that little air release valve on the wheel arch side of the expander and it has a rust trail going down to that halfway rim and then it goes all around the rim of the expander, then dripping down onto the cables and body of the car below. So its either coming out of the molded together middle rim bit (possibly) and that air release valve deffo, I know, kill me! I cant figure out the air release thing as the coolant is never that high up, even when hot. and esp when its drained down below the min mark??? Where the heater matrix was bypassed and the pipes have been joined, it sort of sits above what I think is the steering pump, this was getting wet and I thought it was a coolant leak on one of these joins as I could see the rusty powder on the pump once it had dried. I jubileed this off and it hasn't really been wet looking since, but is still loosing coolant from somewhere. Could the water pumps be knackered/leaking? I think I can hear the one near the spark plug distributer thing come on when the ignition goes live. I am not sure about the one near the air filter... Can I test this one somehow? To flush the cooling system can I jubilee clip a garden hose to the rad coolant tube and just let it run through the entire engine for 10 mins, while massaging the tubes to fee up all that rust **** and get it out. - There isn't any valves etc in the cooling system that this could damage is there, or even the pumps? Is there any other Tests where I can test for the head gasket having gone? Or any other places which are prone to leaking coolant? Pls help!

It wasn't completley sodden - so you could run your finger through it and make a little puddle. It was pretty damp though, like, rub a tissue on it and the tissue will be wet. I'll wait for it to rain again and see if it gets wet again. It rained the other day and i felt it and it wasn't wet so I dunno what has happened.

Sorry for the delayed reply, I disconnected it and it fixed the issue. Then whille topping up brake fluid, I gave the ball cock thing in the brake fulid a clean, it appears it had got a bit grimey and got stuck at the min level, it now works fine! Thanks for the pointer :-) 1 less thing to worry about.

The sunroof does't even work. Only the tilt not the slide. How do I even check the sunroof drains? It wouldn't be anythign to do with the seals that so down either side of the roof would it, like where you would attach a roofrwack if you could, these were cracking so I took them both off?

Hi All, I have noticed my footwells in both driver and passenger seats are damp. The heater matrix has been long bypassed, so I dont think its coolant from the cooling system. The doors seem to have intact seals running around so I dount think its coming in there either. Does anyone know possibly where its coming from?

@VR6 Gar, I suspect mine is the same. I am not a mechanic, but since I can hear a click I'm assuming the switch is good. I just tried banging it and it didn't do anything so I guess I will just take the door card off over the weekend and have a closer look.