[Vwdiesel] Coincidence, and a minor revelation

[Dave Cook]

About two years ago, I did very similar jobs on two different Jettas, a friend's '01 TDI and a co-worker's '00 1.8T.  The job was the same--headgasket and timing belt, though the cause was different.  On the TDI, the headgasket had actually developed a (rare) leak from the cylinder to coolant passages.  On the 1.8T, the timing belt failed when it had 104,700 miles (original change interval was 105,000...)

Recently, both cars developed a coolant leak.  On both, it appeared that the leak was from the plastic flange on the side of the head, over the transmission.

So I replaced both today.  Sure enough, on the inside of the plastic flange, a chunk of the lip that holds the o-ring had cracked off and disappeared, thus the leak. Same failure on both cars.

Neither were replaced at the time the head was off, but now it is clear that this is a part to throw away any time it needs to be removed for some reason.  Cost for each was around $20 including o-rings, the clip for the temp sensor, and shipping.

Stupid VW and their stupid plastic crappy parts.

The minor revelation was that I didn't realize that when you remove the alternator, you can press the metal bushings that the bolts thread into back a bit to make re installation significantly easier.  The bolts pull the bushings tight to the bracket when you tighten them up.  I always cussed at how tight things were and how difficult it was to get things lined up prior to this.
 
Dave Cook