VR6, Oil in my water.... :(

[joeparkes87 0]

Help needed please,

I have a late 1994 Corrado Vr6, she has been running sweet recently. However last week while driving in town something went pop and there was steam everywhere in the car... Lots of water in the passenger foot well so straight away I guessed it was the heater matrix. I connected the two hoses together and ran it to and from work for the rest of the week, all was fine......

So at the weekend I decided to take the dreaded dashboard out and replace the heater matrix which I did quite successfully (considering I have no mechanical knowledge lol ) All fine I thought, but I went to check the water and I have lovely mayo in there.......great!!

At first I though it was the head gasket, but since doing lots of reading on here I am hoping it may be the oil cooler?? So basically I’m after some advice. I’m taking it over to my friend/mechanics tonight so he can have a look at it....

It’s been running lovely though, hasn’t missed a beat. Still ran sweet after the heater matrix went and I bypassed it. Am I right it thinking that if it were the heat gasket it wouldn’t have driven very well?? So why have I got oil in my water??

 

Any ideas???

[joeparkes87 0]

Anyone???

[Diesel Junior 0]

Hi Joe, well done on the matrix of doom first of all! OK, i had this problem in december (http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?52323-VR6-Head-gaskets-and-rip-offs.....(allegedly) ) and i would go for the heat exchanger/oil cooler as the first port of call as if not, its the HG altho judging by the symptoms i dont think it is as you say the car is running ok. When the oil cooler goes oil gets into the water. Period. Have a look in your header tank i bet there is some orange poo there which again is the oil in the water. If you can do the heater matrix then this is do able but while there some preventative treatment is advisable namely the crack pipe and the two tiny pipes which go down to the oil cooler itself, and also a full system flush to get rid of the poo. I will lay money that this is your problem mate, the oil cooler is not too bad (about €75 here) but there is a fair bit of labour. Hope this helps, €10 its the oil cooler/heat exchanger!

[fla 9]

if it were the HG you would also get a lot of steam from the exhaust - much more than normal. Check the spark plugs see if they look 'too clean' if not then hopefully the HG should be ok. Oil cooler is perhaps easier than the heater matrix (never done the latter so dont know), just takes a bit of time to remove the front end etc to get to it. You'll have no problems as mentioned above, you seem to be pretty adept!

[joeparkes87 0]

Thank you for your reply about this matey, and the nice comments while i was doing the heater matrix.... It was your thread that i have been referring to actually. It is your experience that made me think that it could possibly be the oil cooler rather than the head gasket.

It was the orange poo (mayo) that first started ringing alarm bells for me. I had just finished the matrix and was going to connect the hoses back in, but first i though i would check the water level in the header tank....then oh dear that doesn’t look good lol...

Well i ran her up to my mates last night and when he gets a chance he'll have a look at it, although worryingly when he phoned VW for me for a price on an oil cooler they told him that the vr6 didn’t have one....great. GSF don’t even list one, they only have them for g60's and 16v.... So again I’m lost :(

I really hope its the oil cooler, fingers crossed..

 

Thanks again

[Diesel Junior 0]

If it were the HG the car would run like a piece of you know what and there would be more steam than the Flying Scotsman in its prime. VW say a VR6 without an oil cooler???? Hens and teeth spring to mind, maybe you would like to show them this http://www.corrado-teile.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p2073_Oil-Cooler-Hardware-WITHOUT-Thermostat---VR6-Engines.html these guys may be in Germany but they are bloody quick (they sent me mine and it took 4 days to get to Spain), if not try Euro Car Parts or if in a hurry another VW dealer in your area (with someone who knows what they are talking about........). Dont worry its the oil cooler, my €10 are safe.........

[Laughingboy 0]

When your head gasket goes you can get all manor of symtoms depending on how its gone, oil in the water, water in the oil, pressurised cooling hoses... there isn't one definate sign.

 

The gasket went recently on my mk3 vr6 and it drove just perfect but pressurised the pipes.

 

I'd change that oil cooler but get a compression test done to be safe as that should pick up on any head problems.

If it helps, remove the whole front panel from the car and you'll be able to get to the oil cooler very easily and you have to drain the cooling system anyway so its two birds one stone to be honest!

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

i recently replaced the oil cooler seals from underneith the car, its prety tricky but not impossible so maybe try doing that way as its easyer then removeing the front of the car,

[Grimmy2101 0]

I've also done the cooler seals without taking the front off. I had a pit to stand in tho, which made it easier. Doing it on your back will be a bit trickier but easily do-able.

[Mr Sands 0]

I hope very much for you that it's not the head gasket and I don't want to be the voice of doom but the car can run as sweetly as can be and still have a gasket that's let go. My late VR did exactly that: the only symptom was that it was losing a small amount of water regularly. However, I was topping it up for ages; best part of a year in fact. During that time it had a new expansion tank at DG, since they thought that to be the most likely cause. They drove it while its head gasket was knackered and didn't notice it down on performance and it ran fine for me.

 

Looking back there was a little more vapour from the exhaust on start-up than usual but it always seemed to clear when warm. It was only when the VR went to DG for cam fitting that they then did the usual tests and discovered that the gasket was gone. I think that it surprised them as much as me.

 

To try to offer some positivity to balance out, I had no signs of mayo in the water and the failure in the gasket was obviously very minor; if you're running fine but have the mayo, it might well be that it's something else.

 

But in the event that it is the dreaded head gasket, look for positives in having it rebuilt: a skimmed and rebuilt head will give a much smoother and happier pull from the engine. You might not notice a slow, very slight loss of power due to gasket failing but you would get a noticeable and pleasing improvement from a rebuilt head with better compression.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Ed.

[joeparkes87 0]

Thanks for the messages people, i havent had chance to look at it yet, i shall keep you posted... Fingers crossed it isnt the head gasket...