Brown goop

[Rory 0]

There is a coke can shaped mounting or something directly underneath the water bottle on my 95 VR6 with sticky brown goop oozing out the top. It doesnt seem to have any moving parts so i presume its a mounting but thse cars are much more complicated than i first thought.

 

At first i thought the water bottle was dribbling on top of it but its certainly not water. Does anyone know what this is and why is it dribbling crap all over my sub frame making the whole thing look untidy :(

[Jim 1]

Isnt that where the power steering fluid lives? And if so, does the power steering share fluid with the brakes?

[G60Jet 1]

Isnt that where the power steering fluid lives? And if so, does the power steering share fluid with the brakes?

 

Clutch and brakes are the same.

 

power steering is a seperate res tank

[Jim 1]

Ah yes.. thats the one.

 

And the clutch is designed to lose pressure before the brake system is, to give you plenty of warning.

 

Pretty certain that coke can shaped one is for the power steering though... lemme just check my crappy workshop manual.

[Jim 1]

Hm... crappy being the right word.. no mention of what that is :|

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The power steering resevoir is behind the battery, in front of the washer bottle and the fluid it contains is red, shouldn't be brown goop.

 

There is nothing directly underneath the washer bottle that I can think of off the top of my head, except the gearbox!. Maybe someone has fabricated some kind of oil catch tank and mounted it under the washer bottle on your car? That would certainly contain brown goop (emulsified water and oil residue).

 

We need a pic!?

 

Kev

94 VR6

[Rory 0]

I know of the reservoir for the power steering, its the long plastic one but thats not it.

 

The thing im talking about is a metal mounting that comes off the back of the gearbox literally directly under the water bottle. If your looking from the front of the car its the thick solid metal coke can behind the gearbox but closer to the ground

[Rory 0]

I'll take a pic 2moro

[Rory 0]

sorry its the header tank :oops: .Directly below the header tank. Think ive led you all to think its the washer bottle sorry

[Henny 0]

sorry its the header tank :oops: .Directly below the header tank. Think ive led you all to think its the washer bottle sorry

 

:!: Check your oil level ASAP! :!: It sounds like you may have a damaged oil cooler, or worse a blown head gasket! :shock:

 

The brown goop is almost certainly an emulsion of oil and water and is probably coming out of the pressure relef valve on the header tank...

You can check this by opening the header tank (preferably when the engine's off and it's cold) and looking to see what sort of fluid is in there... If it's the brown goop, DON'T run your car until you get it sorted as you may be running without oil! :shock:

 

Guys, anyone got any good checks to tell if it's head gasket or oil cooler?

[Joe M 0]

Ok, to me it sounds like your gearbox mount. Is it the thing that is between the gearbox and subframe? Might sound strange but the mounts are filled with some sort of gel and yes, when there old and its oozing out its brown. Mine was anyway when it was changed last week.

I think the new one was about £65. You will need to check the front one as well as its usually when the front one is on the way out causing excess movement it kills the gearbox one.

[Rams 0]

Mate, your car is a late C, and their front engine mounts are not oil filled, its only the early C's that are oil filled.

 

Sounds to me like the head / gearbox or possibly the CV Joints, check the rubber boots and see if they are still sealed as this would throw gung everywhere as they are packed full of grease.

 

Just my initial thought!

[Joe M 0]

Yeah, I know the front one wasnt oil filled as that was changed as well, its the one at the back right on the gearbox that im talking about, it definately had some sort of brown stuff running down the side of it.

Guess we will need to wait see the pics.

[Rory 0]

This is the goop that is causing all the mess. I think it may be a mount, as you can see its definatley coming from the top and not sprayed on by the gearbox etc. Hope this helps. Thanks guys

[Rams 0]

Looks like the mount has just got loads of water and rust and crap in there, change it and you should be sorted.

 

Your car should feel abit tighter once its done as well,m maybe worth checking the other mounts and doing them at the same time if you can afford it?

[Joe M 0]

Thats exactly the mount I was talking about, £65 for a new one.

[Rams 0]

you were right Joe M,

[Rory 0]

So how much would it cost for all the mounts? Fitted? (not by VW dealer)

 

How about the Vibratecs front one? Theyre supposed to be good arnt they? Or will the standard one do the job?

 

It has been like that since i bought it bout 10k miles ago with 65k on the clock :) so could it damage other things?

 

P.S thats a poor representation of my car, heres a nicer one

[Rams 0]

There are 3 mounts in total, the front mount is really easy, it cost around £44 from German and Sweedish, I use the VW mounts as they are strong and can be less noisey than after market mounts. After all the VR6 is a heavy weight and VW wouldnt have spent loads of money on crap mounts. It depends what sort of work you have had done but if they are general mods then I would stick with the standard mounts. I think its only worth changing every mount in the car than apposed to just one iof you are going to use uprated mounts so the tollerance is all the same through out the cars suspension and engine bay IMO 8) .

[Joe M 0]

I had the 2 engine mounts away, the vw specialist I got them changed at recommended sticking with standard mounts at the back of the engine but uprating the front to a Vibratechnics so thats what ive went with.

Im well happy with it, have noticed no extra vibrations or noise (although as my previous mounts were shot they might not have been damping this out) and the car feels generally better to drive.

[Joe M 0]

Oh, I think the Vibratechnics mount is £125, not sure if it was really worth paying the extra over the standards £44.

[Rory 0]

Joe M, I think ill get the two that you got done if mine are nackered. How much for the lot? The price is the only factor. Like you i'll be visiting a specialist

[Joe M 0]

Just got the receipt out now, the vibratechnics front mount is £120 and the standard rear mount is £65 (I think this came from vw so u may be able to get it cheaper.) I think this is without vat added on.

I would probably have had a go changing them myself but I had other stuff getting done at the same time so it was 4 and a half hours labour. Dont know how much of this time was for the mounts though.

[Rams 0]

Try and find a friend that can help you fit it. All you have to do for the front engine mount is Jack the car up one side, I did the passenger side and rest the wheel on a ramp or something.

 

Then jack the gearbox up using something that wont damage the gearbox, I used a weird material insulation stuff that fridge engineers use. Just take the weight off the gearbox very slightly

Then undo the 3 nuts that hold the metal cap on, then undo the main nut by looking down at your engine and then you have an large allen key or Torque that need to come off but make sure the gearbox is jacked a bit more.

When the mount is offyou will need to jack the gear box up even further so you can get the mount out and slip the new mount in and tighten it slightly and drop the car slowly untill all the wait it taken on the mount and then nip it all up.

 

A garage could do it for you in all of 15 minutes so dont pay much more than £10 / £20 tops.

[Rory 0]

Ive replaced the starter motor on a MK2 Golf before and the mount at the front holds it all together. The gearbox dropped on removing the starter so i had to jack the whole engine & gearbox up to get the bolt back through. This sounds like a similar job so shouldnt take me too long to sort.

 

Thanks guys appreciate the help

 

Any advice on replacing the rear? Or is it the same as the front?