I recently bought my A4 from a private owner. I noticed there was quite some oil in my coolant resivior earlier today. I then had a coolant flush tonight to get most of the oil out. After getting home from the service station i noticed there was still oil floating around. I know the flush didnt remove ALL the oil but figured it would remove most of it. There is no signs of overheating. It doesnt blow white smoke out the rear end. I did notice on my way home tonight that my heat wasnt working. It was blowing cold air? I got home turned car off and heard boiling/popping noise under hood. Opened the hood and went to touch the coolant resivior and it was red hot. What is your suggestions? Headgasket? Tranny cooler going bad? Please help

1998 A4
2.8 V6
180K

 

the coolant resevoir was hot enough it was glowing red?????


a compression test will tell you if either or both head gaskets are bad. the trans cooler wouldnt be the reason unless you had something hit the radiator hard enough to break thru it, and in that case it would be leaking from there.

 

The coolant resivior wasnt glowing red but it was pretty hot to the touch. Couldnt leave your hand on it for more than 10 seconds. I will do a compression check and see what i come up with

 

Okay so i had a compression test done and it came back pretty good. About 120-125. My mechanic told me that i had low pressure in my coolant system. He also told me that he didnt think it was the headgasket. Could it be the lower intake manifold? Cracked blocked. Waterpump,thermostat? Im clueless and suggestiong would help a handful.

Mechanic said that he thinks it could be the waterpump but really cant pin point the problem. He said the only way to no for sure is to take off the front bumper, radiator and tear into the engine.

???

 

So it is something in your coolant system check the thermostat, or ask if it has ever been replaced it is rare that head gasket goes out on our cars. Also could be water pump. Just throwing ideas to the wind.

 

Yeah i have a feeling its the oil cooler, cracked internally. Im starting to scratch out the idea of the headgasket.

The waterpump and thermostat will be replaced as well

 

Could it be that my Oil Cooler is shot?