My engine has all symptoms of a stuck open thermostat. Took the bridge housing off to find a 1 inch pin had pushed all the way through what should be a blind hole. 'Bada bing', I thought. Classic bridge housing fuckedupery, change that and job done.

Have been trying to replace it though, and I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to do with this pin. What is it supposed to connect to on the thermostat, if it actually connects to anything at all? From what I can see from this pic there is nothing it connects to.. I just wanted to check if that is actually my thermostat in there? ^

I have the feeling something is missing, as it's a good couple of inches in that pipe and the pin won't reach that far. Am I supposed to just wedge the pin into the bridge housing's blind hole and put it on? If so, it won't stay there as it's really lose. I can't put the pin in the thermostat end first, as you can clearly see there is no where to locate it?

The fact that you can't look directly down that bit of pipe as the fucking washer bottle is in the way doesn't help. Surely I am doing something wrong.. any tips would be muchos appreciated

Edited 28 February, 201016 yr by CWA

The thermostat lives in there, i replaced mine yday, looks like you have no thermostat in there!

The thermostat lives in there, i replaced mine yday, looks like you have no thermostat in there!

Nice one buddy, I fucking thought so!

I've just realised, the ... of a dealer I bought this off must have taken it out. It's the done thing if the HG is on the way out ain't it? To cover up the fact it is going by preventing any chance of overheating?

I feel right swindled

Chances are the bridge broke causing it to overheat, dealear didn't know about bridge problems and just removed thermostat. Put a new thermostat and bridge in and see what happens.

Could be, although the HG is defo leaking.. am loosing coolant and steaming out the exhaust.

It's been leaking since I bought it, but back when I did buy it I had no clue on cars. Have done 10k miles in this state and I think the only reason it didn't overheat and blow on me is because the thermostat has been out all this time.

This dealer definately knew the score. I feel like such a monkey.

Yep there is no thermostat there! I'll get a pic of what it should look like if you want as I have one sitting on my desk. Dealers are arseholes

Bloooody croooks

i took mine out today thinking id been sold a dud engine with a headgasket failure but my thermostat was broken and stuck open, the spring had come out of the casing so it fully pinged out. new one fitted and its sorted.

are you losing a significant amount of coolant mate? with no visible external leaks? did the water look discoloured before you took the coolant out? and what was the oil looking like?

its not hard to do the headgasket on the polos, just snapped mani studs are a pain but easy enough to replace with new ones.

plus itll only cost you about 50 quid in parts and you know itll be reet after

i took mine out today thinking id been sold a dud engine with a headgasket failure but my thermostat was broken and stuck open, the spring had come out of the casing so it fully pinged out. new one fitted and its sorted.

are you losing a significant amount of coolant mate? with no visible external leaks? did the water look discoloured before you took the coolant out? and what was the oil looking like?

its not hard to do the headgasket on the polos, just snapped mani studs are a pain but easy enough to replace with new ones.

plus itll only cost you about 50 quid in parts and you know itll be reet after

Yeah I'm like 95% sure it's the HG bud, losing a fair amount of coolant and it's all coming out the back as steam. Even once the car is warmed up it's doing it, constantly water going through the exhaust it's making it hard to seal the exhaust joints properly aswell lol

I would give it a crack but I was going to sell this once I've got some ticket on it.. just not worth it like.

50 quid, jobs a good un, itll be running sweet, 12 months ticket and buyers wil love the fact the hg has been done and should see it sweet for about 30k miles+

50 quid, jobs a good un, itll be running sweet, 12 months ticket and buyers wil love the fact the hg has been done and should see it sweet for about 30k miles+

I've already spent like £200+ on it trying to get some ticket on her though, and I still don't actually have any. Just a generally shit situation to try and learn something else at the moment, it's almost like a nail in the coffin for this car anything else goes wrong and I'm just gonna take it to the yard

It doesn't help being stuck in uni and only being able to work on it on weekends. I might give it a go in a few weeks though, I've been wanting to learn it anyway but it pisses me off just not being able to get it back on the road lol.

where are you in the uk?

In Coventry for uni and the car is in Cardiff

Right after that little whining sesh last night I've decided to grow a pair and give the HG a go. Even if I can't get the car through an MOT I can be honest with any buyers as to any outstanding problems and the learning curve will progress

I've got a few queries which the search bar hasn't been able to solve. What do you use to clean the two surfaces once the HG is removed? I'm guessing some kind of abrasive paper.. is there a limit as to the coarseness of grain that may be used like?

The above is assuming I don't get the head skimmed.. is there a way of checking whether it should be skimmed at home?

Also, I am looking to replace the tappets as they are rattling.. if I took the cam and tappets out with the head off, could I get the head skimmed with the valves still in place?

If you get the car to Coventry I'll try to be available to help mate. I work in Coventry. Others may be up for it too - team fix ftw!

Edited 1 March, 201016 yr by cheys03

maybe an optical illusion but is that a hole in your inlet mani next to the vac line for the fpr?

Olly

Right after that little whining sesh last night I've decided to grow a pair and give the HG a go. Even if I can't get the car through an MOT I can be honest with any buyers as to any outstanding problems and the learning curve will progress

go ahead, why not? :)

I've got a few queries which the search bar hasn't been able to solve. What do you use to clean the two surfaces once the HG is removed? I'm guessing some kind of abrasive paper.. is there a limit as to the coarseness of grain that may be used like?

When I've done it there wasn't really much that needed removing, and what was there came off relatively easily, though, from what I remember we just used 'normal' washing up-grade cloths/scourers. I would just use stuff that's as fine as possible I suppose.

The above is assuming I don't get the head skimmed.. is there a way of checking whether it should be skimmed at home?

Also, I am looking to replace the tappets as they are rattling.. if I took the cam and tappets out with the head off, could I get the head skimmed with the valves still in place?

I would suggest skimming it anyway, since at least that saves you having to clean it... lol. I thought it would probably be possible to use something perfectly flat (the back of a large mirror?) and a torch to try to see if the face is warped at all, but I've no idea what the tolerances are supposed to be... as I said in the other thread we didn't bother the first time, then after the HG went again we did - another overheating episode did it in again... perhaps it would have survived that had it been skimmed at first..

And it can be skimmed with the valves in place, they don't stick up above (below?) the face.

Hope this helps...

Yeah that helps a ton bud, cheers. So.. you got your head skimmed with everything like valves and camshaft in place I take it? Did you remove the manifolds aswell? As grunge mentioned, I know I've got a couple of exhaust mani studs that are snapped and need sorting but I wasn't planning on touching the inlet manifold. Unless of course, it will have to be removed to be skimmed?

Where would you recommend buying HG and bolts from? And checking in Haynes manual I noticed that they didn't use any gasket sealant on either HG face.. is that what you did aswell?

Also.. where did you get your socket for the splined bolts?

If you get the car to Coventry I'll try to be available to help mate. I work in Coventry. Others may be up for it too - team fix ftw!

Thanks for the offer dude, team fix would be bitchin! Still got no MOT, and I was planning on sorting everything on the car before putting it in for it's re-test. If I get ticket before I do this job though it is going to be in Cov with me, so I'll defo keep your offer in mind cheeers!

maybe an optical illusion but is that a hole in your inlet mani next to the vac line for the fpr?

Olly

Dude you actually made me pee a little with shock

I'm not actually with the car now, I'm back in uni so can't check for another huge while! I'm assuming that's just a blind hole but I'm going to do some more digging. Have you not seen this hole on other MPI inlet manis?

If it was a hole and creating a vacuum leak THAT big, it would definately be running like shit and be really noticeable wouldn't it?

You can do it with the valves in if you want to be lazy, but you might aswell just completely strip the head and do it properly though. You can test if it's warped using a straight edge and feeler gauges. Yeah you'd have to remove the manifolds too mostly likely depending on who's doing the skim and what equipment they're using!

You can do it with the valves in if you want to be lazy, but you might aswell just completely strip the head and do it properly though. You can test if it's warped using a straight edge and feeler gauges. Yeah you'd have to remove the manifolds too mostly likely depending on who's doing the skim and what equipment they're using!

Cool cheers dude

Another quick question, can I remove the camshaft (to access/replace tappets) without taking the sprocket off? MikeyMK in a very old thread (which I didn't want to needlessly bump) said it may be possible, by removing the seal etc with it aswell?

Anyone ever done this on a 6N engine, to confirm it is actually possible?

You can do it with the valves in if you want to be lazy, but you might aswell just completely strip the head and do it properly though. You can test if it's warped using a straight edge and feeler gauges. Yeah you'd have to remove the manifolds too mostly likely depending on who's doing the skim and what equipment they're using!

Cool cheers dude

Another quick question, can I remove the camshaft (to access/replace tappets) without taking the sprocket off? MikeyMK in a very old thread (which I didn't want to needlessly bump) said it may be possible, by removing the seal etc with it aswell?

Anyone ever done this on a 6N engine, to confirm it is actually possible?

Yes. I didn't remove it myself (dad in law did it), but when I dropped it off for skimming it had valves but no camshaft/followers/manifolds. He definitely didn't remove the sprocket from the camshaft either (whether this means he disturbed an oil seal that technically should be replaced or not I'm unsure - he also put the head back together (a bit of a law unto himself, I prefer to read up and make sure everything is at the correct torque etc, he just prefers to get the spanners out and start taking bolts off ) I just got it skimmed by someone I know who works at a precision machine shop (they make really accurate turntables or something?) who also does loads of car repairs for people to supplement his income. I asked him about valves etc and he just said as long as nothing was sticking out further than the face, it didn't matter.

You can get all the kit from GSF I think, although when I looked ages ago I couldn't find head bolts listed for the ALL engine (don't know if that's actually your engine code...), but the gasket kit itself was listed as being for ALL/AER engines, and they did list AER bolts - I assume they're the same - dad-in-law got the gaskets and stuff himself from somewhere in the end.

Sockets to remove the bolts, I just used a suitably sized Torx bit from a kit like this (ebay) one. I didn't buy the kit specifically for this job, I'd bought it for doing work on my Passat. Oh, and definitely buy a torque wrench if you don't already have one, takes all the guesswork out of how tight things need to be...

Mint, thanks for the reply buddy. Been looking at GSF site, and they don't sell gaskets or bolt sets individually for my engine code either (APQ). They do sell a 'CYLINDER HEAD GASKET SET-BQ' for the APQ (£40) which I'm assuming is the gasket and bolts and a couple of other things all in. I will pop in to clarify that with them anyways.

Yeah I'm hoping to borrow a torque wrench off a mate for this job as the car has sucked my balls dry right now lol. Cheers for that eBay link I think I'll get hold of some of them, just hope they will withstand the torques of the head bolts lol.

Cheers for the help guy

Head gasket sets don't usually include bolts mate

Head gasket sets don't usually include bolts mate

Err fuck, so they want £40 for the gasket itself?! I'm gonna pop down there and ask what's what me thinks, can't make shit out on their website lol

If GSF don't have the right stuff, I'm guessing it will be a VW jobbie?