1998.5 1.8TQM

Okay so I have been having this ongoing issue with cooling. Its some slow leak somewhere. Now last night was the boiling point (no pun intended) when it overheated, my LCD is broken like most A4s out there so I didnt see the coolant light.. didnt hear the beeping because of the radio.. I look down and see that my oil temp guage is through the roof! my coolant temp was fine... maybe there wasnt even enough to pass through the sensor telling its boiling who knows..
well the coolant was real low.
now that everything has cooled down today and I topped off coolant the right way three times... its still leaking into somewhere (which explains the white smoke I now get in my exhaust when I start the car, and it sounds like crap when i start it).
I dont remember there being pressure and steam coming from within my head, when I take off the oil fill cover theres pressure and steam, the same steam pretty much that comes out of the coolant reservoir when i take off the cover, cant tell if the smell is coolant in the head.

now today when i drove it to the autozone to get codes pulled i got a P0302 cyl2-misfire, P0422 catalyst system efficiency below threshold (bank 1), P0118 engine coolant temp circuit- high input (threw this code when i poured coolant in it when it got home).
Now a new problem- it overheated the coolant on the drive home.
Oil temp has been staying around middle (250F) now.

Where do I even start?!?!1

 

Head gasket needs changing I guess... Guess that's a start.

 

Yeah, with the searching around ive been doing that is one of the options, but it seems to be known that it takes a LOT to blow a head gasket, I wonder if what i did was a whole lot... I consider the fact that my first audi (Audi 100) engine seized up 20 seconds after hitting a cone (knocked the oil filter, leaked the oil out- seized it up QUICK)...

I checked the oil, and there seems to be more oil than usual... Like a good bit of the ways up the dipstick past the dots.. which COULD explain the catalytic conv code..

I took the excess oil out. Ill could keep going on small trips, enough til it is to the point of overheating, refilling the coolant and checking the oil to see if thats my problem right there..
There is no oil in the coolant BTW.
Coolant getting in the oil still would not explain why its overheating!

Could the overheating be caused by a stressed out thermostat? Since it ran so damned hot last night im thinking it may have thrown the thermostat out of alignment and now its overheating? Or it could have seized the thermostat shut? I dont want to go wasting all this precious G12 (i dont have any extra right now) on a hunch so someone tell me if this is possible.. (its a new thermostat BTW, maybe 2000 miles on it)

 

I pulled out the spark plugs one by one and found no coolant or oil in the compression chamber (from all I could see with a flashlight and my good vision), also, the spark plugs look normal for their 2000 mile age.

 

which is heavier, oil or antifreeze? the oil that came out when i drained the excess was normally colored, not very thick but thats because it was hot still.

im thinking tomorrow morning i can unscrew the drain plug lightly, if antifreeze and water is lighter than oil VIOLA! I will confirm my suspicion..

now what on earth would case antifreeze in oil...

Update: It doesnt overheat when I let it idle, its been about 20 minutes so far and the needle for coolant is halfway, needle for oil is 1.5 bars above 150F

 

IS THIS TRUE? Now theyve got me scared, ive got the bad one.... should i try replacing oil cooler anyways?
I figure since the coolant has a higher pressure than if the cooler is leaking then coolant would get into the oil... not true?

 

wut color is your coolant? i'm like 99% sure your headgasket is gone, if you keep driving like that you'll end up warping something in the engine. stop driving it and fix it now. or you could sell it i guess.

 

my coolant is of normal color. the oil is not getting into it. however coolant is seeping into the oil at an alarming rate.

yeah i think im done driving it for a while. seems like a good project to start now. i just found out my friend has an extra Jeep I can use til either the Audi or the RX-7 are fixed, so now I either start a head gasket job on the A4 or a tranny swap on the Mazda.. oh how the dead cars are piling in my driveway and garage.

QUESTION: So in doing a head gasket job, what else should be done? I read somewhere that I have to take off the timing belt so its the best time to get the whole timing belt kit'n'kaboodle from ECS or somewhere. (When I bought the car I got the "oh I lost the timing belt receipt sorry but heres the other ones" response, regrettably after I signed the title. so its time for it anyways )

 

normal isnt a color. you havnt even said what engine you have in the car or the year. i would say check or replace the oil cooler under the oil filter first because if it were the head gasket you would definitely see fluids in the cylinder, but if you have been driving it to the point of overheating repeatedly- you probably now also toasted your head gasket as well and possibly warped the head. start with a compression test on each cylinder and post the PSI numbers from each one here.

 

98.5 1.8TQM

I actually looked at Crayola's wiki to see if 'normal' was in any name in the list of colors your right. Its 'Diluted Pink' really, because ive been adding so much water- ran out of distilled so im using straight Brita water
Yeah I was thinking about getting an oil cooler for the F of it, contrary to popular opinion on the head gasket I would like to take that chance of it being an oil cooler ya know?
Good idea on the compression test. Ill go to Harbor Freight they have a whole compression and leakdown testing kit for $30.