so heres the story......

took my 02' a4 in for the 80k scheduled maintanence the other day. my mechanic found a bit of oil in the coolant resevior. turns out the oil cooler had a pin size hole in it which was allowing oil into the coolant lines. he removed the oil cooler and was allowing it to drain out, after it drained he realized that the hole was very small. he then told me that he was worried that it could possibly be a cracked head gasket since there was a good amount of oil in the coolant. he replaced the oil cooler and told me to put a decent amount of miles on it in the next couple of days and keep checking the coolant to see if more oil was getting in there after we replaced the oil cooler. so i drove it for about 250 miles and there is surprisingly no oil in the resevioir. not even residual, which i thought there definitly would be atleast a little left in the lines. i go out to dinner tonight and as i get onto the freeway my car looses all power for a second and then starts to shake pretty bad. this is followed by the ever so cool check engine light flashing. i limp to my mechanics shop and park it outside. im bumming hard, this seems like a sure fire sign that its a head gasket. however i dont really know all that much about cars. does this seem like a blown head gasket to you guys? please reply with any info you have. i would greatly appreciate it . i searched for posts about blown head gaskets, but didnt find anyone with the same symptoms. what do you all think?

ps... he put some sealer in the coolant resevior today, could that cause this to happen?

 

Your engine model would be a help. Get the codes pulled

I put my money on a bad coil pack. If your mechanic says head gasket, get a second opinion.

 

the lastest issue is deff not head gasket realated, coil pack or ECU ICU, check to see about the oil in teh resovoir, and post codes and engine type

 

If the small hole in the oil cooler was there for a while, the oil would slowly accumulate in the coolant.

Your 2nd problem (rough/flashing CEL) is 99.9% most likely a blown coilpack. 40 bucks and 5 minutes and you can be back on the road.

 

oh, engine model is the 1.8t. sorry, well hopefully you guys are right. ill get the codes today and post them. ill let you guys know what happens. thanks for the help, i feel much better about the situation........ for now. lol.

 

Had the same problem at 70,000 miles. Coild pack... engine isn't firing on all cylinders. Replace the coil and check for transmission seal leaks (just as a precaution).

 

if it was a head gasket, it would have low power and want to die when the engine is cold, or if your hammering on it. Also there would be lots of white smoke coming out of the exhaust.

if you dont hav ethese symptoms its probably a coil.

 

woo hoo!! as always you guys know your ****. its just a coil pack. i think im gonna do all 4 of them cause im about to take a 1000 mile road trip tomorrow. is this a good idea or are you guys from the "if it aint broke dont fix it" school?

 

Buy 4 of them... replace the one that went bad, put the other three in your trunk... you may need them on your trip, and it is an easy fix, you can do it yourself and be back on the road without getting a tow or waiting for a mechanic to fix it.

-w

 

I would replace them all, if your tight on cash keep a spare in the trunk. Usually when one goes the others are not far off.