Hi all,

I am still having a serious coolant problem and now othersthat I cannot seem to resolve. Any help from a practicing Audi mechanic would be much appreciated. Apologies if it is long winded but I'd rather give someone the complete picture.

It is a 97 Audi A4 1.8 5v RHDautomatic with air con. The car has only covered about 57,000 miles and has a full Audi service history. The main problem I have is that I do not have a specialist or dealer near me so I have had to rely on a Volvo specialist who appears competent and has done the work on the car upto now with the assistance of telephoning a distant specialist who knows the car.

First off, I had the car overhauled by the specialist after purchase from a car dealer. He pointed out at the time I collected that there was a coolant system problem but because I couldn't leave the car any longertold me to keep an eye on it and report to him with symptons as they became evident.

Over a 3 month period I was topping up Maximum to minimum expansion bottle coolant about every 2 weeks. Finally the liquid became coffee coloured and had mixed with the gearbox oil at which time I took it to the Volvo garage. He then had several extensive conversations with the specialist and sent down a new inner radiator I think. Apparently the tubing from either gearbox oil or coolant has broken and mixed with the other inside the rad and this is what has caused the problem. So, this wasreplaced, 9 litres of flush was used and the gearbox oil,coolant also replaced (all sent down) at the same time. This was about 10 days ago.

After receiving the car back I noticed that at a steady speed and constant throttle the revs waver and it feels like the box is trying to change gear. I returned the car and the volvo specialist again consulted theAudi specialist. He told him to remove the box and check the 7 solenoids on the box because1 or more may have been damaged from the water contamination. He did sobut all appeared fine on avolt meter etc. He has since told me to bring it to him (600 miles) as there is a fault in the box probably caused fromdriving it with the water contamination and he will have to fix it himself!

Yesterday Ichecked the expansion bottle, and low and behold it is down on the minimum again, so I have topped it up. The inner roofing of the cap also appears milky in colour.

I also have an immobiliser which sometimes stays lit (the yellow light) and cuts out the engine. This happens maybe twice a week. Is this normal?After searching the forums most experts seem to think that replacing the search coil will definitely solve this, but consulting my specialist again he said you will also have to replace the immobiliser to make sure.

Taking it 600 miles and probably staying 2 or 3 nights before returning is out of the question. There is a main audi dealer about 300 miles away which is the route I am thinking of taking. However first break in work schedule I have is 6 weeks away, and taking it there will mean a bill probably double the specialist.

I would appreciate if one of you can explain to me the coolant system as I don't understand this mixed pipe affair and also what you think the problem could still be along with the other problems mentioned. I cannot see where I am losing coolant. Tonight I am going to drive home without the air con and put a tray under the car to see if I'm losing any that way.

Comments appreciated.


Mak.

 

u kno u might have a valve cover gasket leak. check to see if ur exhaust has bluish color smoke. also check around the engine bay urself to see anything white and pink crust. that's wut g12 coolant does when it dries. unless ur not running g12 coolant. and i've nvr heard of an inner radiator. also is there a tranny oil cooler on the a4? nvr heard of it. u should pm cincytt and auditech79, they are very very knowledgeable.

 

Hi thanks for the reply. It maybe a transimission oil cooler. I saw it when it was shipped down and it looked like a small rad. The main rad is definetly the same but the appears 2 when you look with the bonnet up. Hence my guess but your probably right with the oil cooler that's what it is.

Forgot to mention that the air con has a badodour when I turn it on since I got it back too which it hasn't done before.


Mak

 

well as i said the valve cover gasket can be a culprit. i believe u can do that urself. all u gotta do is take off the head, scrape off the old gasket and put the new one on. taking off the head seems intimidating but it's not as bad as u think lol. plus there's rly not much u can mess up if ur in a clean environment and don't touch anything that looks like it shouldn't be touched lol. also, ur car has a engine oil cooler. it's the square thing the filter is screwed onto. that may also be a culprit.

 

Since your cooalnt is brown in color and the oil coolers areknown to go bad, I think the oil cooler is your problem. Check to see if you have water in the oil the at the next oil change.

 

i have exactly the same problem

 

It is not the valve cover, as someone else said.

If you have continuing leak, and there is oil getting into the system, it is likely the oil cooler. Alternatively, it could be the head gasket, but you would likely see water in the oil.

Is your coolant brown because you have been topping up your system with green color antifreeze, whereas what your car had in it was pink G12 coolant?

If you are now smelling something in the car, you could have a leak at the heater core.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. As it stands I haveHAD the transmission oil cooler replaced.System has been flushed and gearbox oil and g12 replaced. The system is now 10 days on from being done and the coolant is down on the minimum in the expansion bottle BUT it is the proper pink colour! I have topped it up with pink coolant, but obviously this is not normal after just 10 days of being done! The only thing that shows abnormal is the inner roof of the cap which is a milky colour, it was not like this when I picked it up from being fixed!

Although the oil cooler was obviously defective it must have also had a coolant leak somewhere else! I checked the floor last night on driving home and there were no drips or water evident.

Any further suggestions would be appreciated also in regard the search coil problem and yellow warning light. Will replacement of the coil fix this without the dealer also doing the immobo?

Many thanks again.

Mak

 

First off the immobilizer problem is most likely the reader (coil) if its intermittent.
Second your not getting gearbox oil in the coolant, never happens, if anything its oil.
Where the oil filter screws in (oil cooler) has coolant running through it as david said, and could migrate either coolant into the oil orvice versa. The other possiblity would be a blown headgasket but you would be having overheating problems. The transmission fault codes probably have nothing to do with your coolant problem.Take it to the dealer (far away as it may be) and have them fix everything for you.

 

Many thanks auditech79 for your help. I will do as suggested as soon as I can arrange it. In the mean time is there anywhere on the net where I can see a diagram of this area of the engine or a photo journal perhaps. Just so I have an understanding of the workings of the workings of this cooler etc.

Many thanks again

Mak