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Author Topic: Coolant leak or Head Gasket?  (Read 1058 times)

Offline dTEA

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Coolant leak or Head Gasket?
« on: November 11, 2013, 09:21:34 pm »
I've a reoccurring problem with coolant loss with standard ED30. Firstly it was after the cambelt and water pump change at 66,000. That turned out to be the plug on the bottom of the water pump.

It continued to leak and was undiagnosable for a while, and then the housing on the side of the block above the gearbox was said to be the culprit. £18 and labour. That didn't stop the leak and it undiagnosable until the housing was said to be leaking again. At 78,000 that was changed again, but its still leaking and from the same spot. Pressure test hasn't really shown much, but the car was still hot from the drive over to the garage due to time constraints. So housing is being replaced under warranty, BUT, out of the 3 technicians only one doesn't believe it to be the head gasket where it meets the housing.

There are no mayo signs in the filler neck or around dipstick, and no white smoke when pushing it hard. The only signs of anything possibly amiss is the slight smell of smoke at start up (and I do mean slight, so much so I think its only me who thinks it smells! Dont know if I'm now paranoid!) The housing is the area its leaking from and congregating around the lip on the block and then running freely down the front and back and over all kinds of hoses and ancillary bits.

Any ideas? Is it likely to be the internal where the housing meets the head gasket and fails to seal?

All I want is a healthy ED30 so I can get on with the WALK and remap plans with a DSG remap too.