I have an A3 2.0 TDI 2004 (103KW/320Nm)Model which started to give me hard starts in the mornings(cranking quite a number of times before the engine starts). At 155 000km it started giving me quite a thick white smoke when starting and then becomes OK as the engine warms up. I took it in for serviceto a local dealer (South Africa) which they gave mea diagnostic that its mixing oil and water. After which they had to strip the cylinder head off, to find out that it's cracked(if they telling me the truth because I could not see the crack with my own eyes apparently its too small. They then called me againthat the engineering guys could probably do something about it??? Don't know what do believe....

Now i'm faced with a situation that I have to source a cylinder head (was hoping that engineering could fix it ?) which is expensive from the pocket about R11000 ( i.e approx$1571) total costs for the repairs is about R25000 (i.e approx$3571)My monetary conversion might not be accurate!!! .Is there any recommendation that I could get from you fellow Audi diesel drivers or someone who had the sam problem....? :-(

Should I sell the caronce it's fixed? I thought I ran out of car problems when I bought a diesel... My car has been to every service with another Audi dealer. Can I claim for anything? Do I have warranty?Can I also get names of places I can source the cylinder headeven if Iwould have to ship it into the country?

Would I appreaciate a lot of advise...


Cheers...

From a troubled driver....

 

White smoke generally means a cracked cylinder head. Sounds like their diagnosis was right.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much all the input I have in this...

 

Presumably they've checked the head gasket for leaks? If it's leaking instead of the head, and they've already got the cylinder head off, it is pretty cheap and easy to replace.

I had a similar problem and had to get the head gasket replaced - the head itself was fine. The expense came in the work to take the engine to pieces, rather than the part itself.

If it is the head I wouldn't be massively confident about fixing it, probably better to replace it and prevent further problems.

Note: The head gasket is the thin piece of metal that sits between the head and the rest of the engine and seals the block when everything is tightened up, just in case people don't know...

 

Jex, if the head gasket is leaking, the smoke would be 'bluish' white.

 

Both a leaking cylinder head and gasket are going to allow coolant into one or more cylinders, and/or oil into the cooling system. Once coolant is in the combustion chambers the steam/smoke coming out of the exhaust is going to be pretty much the same colour. I'm not sure you could really tell which component is causing the problem by variation in colour.

Anyway, regardless of colour variation or not, it's worth looking at both parts as a new gasket is going to be a lot easier on the pocket than a new head...

 

Hi, I have an Audi A3 2.0 TDI 2004(160 000km) that smokes when cold(long hard cranks whenstarting in the mornings and afternoons from work andhasthick white smoketo purple colour that goes away after the car is warm with unusual idling shudders)which Ican even see from my rear view window which is confusing now after spending about R24 000 exchange rate to USD 7.00(3 500))aftera new cylinder head(complete set)wasfitted. I took the car in after I was promised that the smoke would dissapear after the vehiclehasdriven quite(about 2 000km)a bit which made sense because the vehiclewas with one the Audi dealers here in South Africa(Gauteng province) for about 3 months not being driven while I was raising the funds for the repair.

They then put the vehicle on the VAG which they could see that cylinder#1 was misfiring. I don't know the cause for this but now I'm frustrated after spending so much [:@]and I still have problems. One of the techies there decided to swap the injectors around in order to check for an injector problem which they now say that I have a problem with the injector(s). Is this now a common problem? should I now start by thinking of selling the car? Can they refurbish the injectors? Are they accurate in their diagnosis because now I can't afford to be hit with another invoice!!! and also can I live with the problem or it can only cause more problems for me?

Would really appreciate all the advice and options that I have from you fellow TDI experts and drivers... !!!