Re: hose failure/s on a VAG motor. longish.

[Aleksander Mierzwa <alexaudi@kki.net.pl>]

At 22:09 99-09-04 +0100, mamn97@dial.pipex.com wrote:

[...]
>Anyway, over the past 4k miles I've had the car there's always 
>been oil/mayo on the inside of the expander tank and on top of the 
>coolant which I assume is from when the cooler went. Last week, I 
>flushed out the water system with a standard radiator flush and got 
>most of the sludge out of the expander tank - by taking it off and 
>giving it a soak. Anyway within days I noticed that the sludge 
>reappeared in the expander tank and there's another layer of sludge 
>on top of the water. Here are my questions:
>
>Do u think I have a more serious problem - head gasket? My theory 
>is that I don't since water circulates the system, carrying the 
>mayo/sludge left behind when the cooler failed to the expander 
>tank which is less dense, hence sitting on top and accumalating, 
>and the flush didn't get rid of all the mayo? but what do u think? Do 
>u know any other symtoms which reflect a head gasket? - no white 
>smoke or water in the oil. 

No white smoke doesn't actually rule out a blown head gasket. Blown head
gasket can give variety of symptoms: oil out, water out, oil in water,
water into cylinder, exhaust gases into water etc. depending on where the
crack is. Oil in water is a classic symptom of a blown head gasket,
however, since the oil cooler (and I assume it's an oil-to-water cooler)
has failed before, the remaining sludge may be difficult to get rid of. 

>I wrote to this group a while ago about high oil temp on the car. 
>Anyway, I replaced the temp sender and now get readings of 
>around 95- 105 Degs.C.  

Sounds perfectly normal - the oil temperature should always stay around (or
slightly above) 100C as this enables water to evaporate.

>My water temp usually stays between 1/4 
>and 1/2 when the fan kicks in, 1/4 in the cold weather or cruising, 
>but between the 2 in hot weather or when driving hard.
>I also 'feel' that the engines hotter than it should be and the coolant 
>is always under pressure - and comes shooting out when u undo 
>the cap. 

The 1/4 to 1/2 of the scale seems normal (if not a little on the low side),
as to the pressure, it is a pressurized system and it's supposed to act
like that. 

>So do u think I have a more serious problem or will replacing all the 
>hoses solve it - and is this standard practice for a car this old? 

Yep, you've got a 9 years old car out there and at this age most coolant
hoses are at the end of their lifespan.

>Any advise on the hoses I should use? VAG seems v. expensive. - 
>They quote ~ £14 in their "low price catalogue" for the top hose 
>which has just gone, and I was quoted £17 for a tiny 3 inch 
>standard hose! (which I replaced for about £4 and have about 1.5 
>foot left!) 

Most hoses can be cheaply purchased from independent automotive stores
unless it's a very weird one (like the T-shaped one).

--
Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
87 5KT