Ok, this is going to be a long post, but honestly I need some opinions because I am about to drive my car off a bridge.
This is on my 96 jetta 2.0, this is how it starts....
My car didn't like coolant. It would perpetually be "low" all the time. It was always just a tad bit under the low mark on the reservoir which would set the low coolant light off. But it would never overheat. Every 4 months or so I would have to add maybe 20oz of coolant to it just to top it off, although it never over heated.
I racked this up as a a leak. There is the coolant flange on the side of the head that would dribble a bit, so it never worried me.
One day I am adding coolant, and for some genius idea I put orange in (yes the original is green) and yes, I know your not supposed to mix them but I did without thinking at the time.
A week goes by or so, then my car fucks up. No heat, and it would overheat right away. The T-Stat is on the water pump, which then goes to the lower end of the rad, through the rad, etc. Well this was stone cold, which lead me to believe the T-Stat wasn't opening. I figured mixing the orange and green just plugged the fucker up.
I brought the car to my mechanic because I didn't feel like changing it out at the time. I told him the story and told him to replace the T-Stat and the coolant flange on the side of the head (which was leaking) while he was at it. So he does it all. Oh also, when he was bleeding it, he put a new temp sensor for the rad fans in,
He says the car is done, so I go get it to drive home. Well I had heat now, but when I was driving the car would overheat. If I stopped it would cool off. So I bring it back.
He dicks around with it, checks my head gasket. He thought maybe coolant was leaking into the cylinders, not into the oil, so he pressurized it, pulled the spark plugs, and looked for leakage. There was none. So he guesses it was a bad water pump. I went along with that because I was about 100 miles away from my 160k mark for the timing belt and water pump. I told him don't worry about it because I am going to replace the two at school. So I take it home.
Well I couldn't leave well enough alone and was driving the car. I would drive, let it heat up, pull over and it would cool down. I did this for a while just trying to figure out what was going on, if it was really the waterpump. After 30 min or so, the car worked just fine. Again it would never over heat, the lower rad hose was hot, and the rad fans kicked on. I ended up driving it for another month or so just putting the timing belt job off. Didn't have any problems after that. Although for some reason my car still didn't like coolant. Again it would be perpetually "low" but never over heat.
So 3 weeks ago I replace the timing belt and WP. Get the job all done, add some coolant, and take off. Well it overheated. No surprise because this engine is a BITCH to bleed. I spend a few hours bleeding the damn thing, and finally get it to work. I could drive around, have heat, no problem.
But then, when you park the fucker and let it sit, it fucks up again. You start driving, you never get heat, and it overheats. I would then have to rebleed the engine all over to make it work. I spent a great deal of time trying to figure it out. I found if you start it up, let it overheat a bit, crack the res cap and let some pressure out, it will work for an hour or so. The mind fuck is the lower rad hose would NEVER get hot, the coolant fans would NEVER kick on. But it wouldn't overheat for a long time. Which I don't get at all... If the lower rad hose is cold the t-stat must not be open, so coolant won’t go through the rad, so it would overheat. But it didn’t. At the same time, coolant HAD to be going through the rad so it wouldn’t overheat, so the t-stat must be open…..
I was driving it around and ended up blowing a coolant hose because I couldn't find a place to pull over. So I was pretty pissed at this point and said fuck it, I'm just bringing it to my mechanic and let him deal with it. Another deal was is I didn’t want to play the guessing game, and just put parts in until it worked.
Well he decides the rad is plugged. Which I kind of figured in the back of my head. He said he tried to flush it, and barely anything would come out. So I give him the green light to replace the rad and just get my car back.
He has had it for 2 weeks now and I finally go in today after hes been messing with it trying to figure out whats wrong. So now, I have another NEW t-stat, NEW WP, NEW Radiator, NEW coolant flange, NEW fan temp sensor, new fucking everything.
And it STILL does the same shit. You can bleed it, drive it, park it, then it does the whole thing all over.
He said he can pressure test it, and it holds. But when he tests the pressure with the engine on (it building the pressure) it builds too much pressure. Which he said doesn’t happen much, but it can mean a bad head gasket.
Now he thinks it’s the head gasket. But I swear it can’t be that. How else would everything work just fine? It seems like every time you lose coolant, it fucks with you. It would seem like a pretty big coincidence to me, that when I replace the WP and Timing belt that the head gasket goes at the same time.
Anyone have any brilliant ideas? Because I am fresh out….
This is on my 96 jetta 2.0, this is how it starts....
My car didn't like coolant. It would perpetually be "low" all the time. It was always just a tad bit under the low mark on the reservoir which would set the low coolant light off. But it would never overheat. Every 4 months or so I would have to add maybe 20oz of coolant to it just to top it off, although it never over heated.
I racked this up as a a leak. There is the coolant flange on the side of the head that would dribble a bit, so it never worried me.
One day I am adding coolant, and for some genius idea I put orange in (yes the original is green) and yes, I know your not supposed to mix them but I did without thinking at the time.
A week goes by or so, then my car fucks up. No heat, and it would overheat right away. The T-Stat is on the water pump, which then goes to the lower end of the rad, through the rad, etc. Well this was stone cold, which lead me to believe the T-Stat wasn't opening. I figured mixing the orange and green just plugged the fucker up.
I brought the car to my mechanic because I didn't feel like changing it out at the time. I told him the story and told him to replace the T-Stat and the coolant flange on the side of the head (which was leaking) while he was at it. So he does it all. Oh also, when he was bleeding it, he put a new temp sensor for the rad fans in,
He says the car is done, so I go get it to drive home. Well I had heat now, but when I was driving the car would overheat. If I stopped it would cool off. So I bring it back.
He dicks around with it, checks my head gasket. He thought maybe coolant was leaking into the cylinders, not into the oil, so he pressurized it, pulled the spark plugs, and looked for leakage. There was none. So he guesses it was a bad water pump. I went along with that because I was about 100 miles away from my 160k mark for the timing belt and water pump. I told him don't worry about it because I am going to replace the two at school. So I take it home.
Well I couldn't leave well enough alone and was driving the car. I would drive, let it heat up, pull over and it would cool down. I did this for a while just trying to figure out what was going on, if it was really the waterpump. After 30 min or so, the car worked just fine. Again it would never over heat, the lower rad hose was hot, and the rad fans kicked on. I ended up driving it for another month or so just putting the timing belt job off. Didn't have any problems after that. Although for some reason my car still didn't like coolant. Again it would be perpetually "low" but never over heat.
So 3 weeks ago I replace the timing belt and WP. Get the job all done, add some coolant, and take off. Well it overheated. No surprise because this engine is a BITCH to bleed. I spend a few hours bleeding the damn thing, and finally get it to work. I could drive around, have heat, no problem.
But then, when you park the fucker and let it sit, it fucks up again. You start driving, you never get heat, and it overheats. I would then have to rebleed the engine all over to make it work. I spent a great deal of time trying to figure it out. I found if you start it up, let it overheat a bit, crack the res cap and let some pressure out, it will work for an hour or so. The mind fuck is the lower rad hose would NEVER get hot, the coolant fans would NEVER kick on. But it wouldn't overheat for a long time. Which I don't get at all... If the lower rad hose is cold the t-stat must not be open, so coolant won’t go through the rad, so it would overheat. But it didn’t. At the same time, coolant HAD to be going through the rad so it wouldn’t overheat, so the t-stat must be open…..
I was driving it around and ended up blowing a coolant hose because I couldn't find a place to pull over. So I was pretty pissed at this point and said fuck it, I'm just bringing it to my mechanic and let him deal with it. Another deal was is I didn’t want to play the guessing game, and just put parts in until it worked.
Well he decides the rad is plugged. Which I kind of figured in the back of my head. He said he tried to flush it, and barely anything would come out. So I give him the green light to replace the rad and just get my car back.
He has had it for 2 weeks now and I finally go in today after hes been messing with it trying to figure out whats wrong. So now, I have another NEW t-stat, NEW WP, NEW Radiator, NEW coolant flange, NEW fan temp sensor, new fucking everything.
And it STILL does the same shit. You can bleed it, drive it, park it, then it does the whole thing all over.
He said he can pressure test it, and it holds. But when he tests the pressure with the engine on (it building the pressure) it builds too much pressure. Which he said doesn’t happen much, but it can mean a bad head gasket.
Now he thinks it’s the head gasket. But I swear it can’t be that. How else would everything work just fine? It seems like every time you lose coolant, it fucks with you. It would seem like a pretty big coincidence to me, that when I replace the WP and Timing belt that the head gasket goes at the same time.
Anyone have any brilliant ideas? Because I am fresh out….
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