Someone help diagnose the problem please. 1.4 TDI

 

Water is foaming at the coolant bottle from starting the engine? When temperature rises and I close the coolant bottle, coolant pipes become hard which I think coolant system becomes pressurised.

 

Fitted new water pump, thermostat, radiator fan switch and heater matrix although heating inside the cabin is not as hot as it should be.

 

Is there any way the head gasket can be tested without removing the head? There is no oil in coolant system and no water in oil either.

 

Thanks very much.

 

 

You can buy testing fluids that change colour in the presence of exhaust gases, which would be one form of confirmation.

You may even be able to smell that foam and notice that it smells of exhaust fumes?

 

Looks to me like you have a type of HG failure where combustion chamber and water jacket are no longer being kept apart. So combustion products are being forced into the coolant when engine is running. You may find coolant goes the other way into the affected cylinder when the engine is off. If this gets bad enough the engine will crank extremely roughly when you try to start it, as it tries to compress that coolant instead of the usual air. 

 

thanks for your reply, i am in the process of removing the head, i have done petrol head gaskets in the past but this is diesel doing it first time, is there anything i should be aware of? car has full service history but no record of head gasket ever being replaced, and gasket still has germany stamped on it where it slightly sits outside between block and head so looks like it is due for a change.

I have no experience of anything much to do with diesels, sorry.

I did notice that there are different thicknesses of gaskets in the parts catalogue, but not sure how you choose the right one.

 

What year is the car, and what engine code? Before you go too far, it might be worth checking whether you have an EGR cooler and whether that could be the source of the pressurising of coolant.

 

2001 engine code AMF, it does have egr but no cooler.

Gasket part numbers all start with 045 103 383, then have the suffix AA, AB, or AC for so-called '1 hole', '2 hole' and '3 hole' versions, respectively.

 

 

cheers

pulled the head out today, no cracks in gasket but was looking tired around water channels and general wear n tear.

 

What is the tightening torque for the middle main bolt on the cam sprocket? I undid the bolt which was not necessary.

100Nm by the looks of it, item 5:

 

ALL SORTED, NEW HEAD GASKET FITTED.