1.9 TDi ASV Overheating+ oil in water, head gasket or oil pump?

Hi my 2001 seat Leon tdi ASV 110bhp is over heating.

First of all I meant oil cooler not pump my bad!

It seems to be OK around town and when idling but after being on the motorway for more than 15-20min it will overheat.

There is a lot of oil in the water but no water in the oil, there is also a lot of pressure building up.

So far I have removed the thermostat and flushed the whole system but after letting it tick over for 15min it was back to the way it was, this is a pic of the expansion tank

Now after doing a lot of forum reading think it's either the head gasket or the oil cooler although I don't understand how if it where the oil cooler how it should cause it to overheat?

Any suggestions thanks


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Djyo said:

Hi my 2001 seat Leon tdi ASV 110bhp is over heating.

First of all I meant oil cooler not pump my bad!

It seems to be OK around town and when idling but after being on the motorway for more than 15-20min it will overheat.

There is a lot of oil in the water but no water in the oil, there is also a lot of pressure building up.


Any suggestions thanks


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Click to expand...

Head gasket most likely, that part I underlined points to it for me. Not to bad a job anyway.

Good to see your still on here seatman I have a new Leon since my last visit on here lol

I'm also thinking it's more the head gasket but I have read a good few topics of people with same issues changing the head gasket and it's still the same then they change the oil cooler and the problem is sorted but as I said I can't see how a leaking oil cooler would cause it to overheat.

After my 1.5 - 2mile drive home from work tonight doing 50mph as soon as I got in my drive it started bubbling water out of the tank.

My head gasket has 3 holes in it, is it as simple as getting another gasket with 3 holes again?
Cheers bud


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Got another question too I have this vac valve with no plug or vacs going into it then another one in front of it just hanging, it also looks like I'm missing something just to the right?


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This one going to egr has broke off too lol


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Yes a 3 hole for a 3 hole

The next pne looks like someone has deleted the egr and asv, the one in front will be the N75 for the turbo.

Is this enough to say it's definitely the HG decided to let it run for a while to see if I could get any heat from the heaters left coolant cap off and started to get steam threw it which smells the same as the exhaust fumes aswell as never ending bubbleshttps://vimeo.com/170087862


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I would check your oil cooler / heat exchanger first!!! Way cheaper and also an easy path for oil to contaminate the coolant.

Please please check this first.

Looks like an air lock, should be a constant stream of coolant coming back through there.

You could check the oil cooler first as oldpoopie says but I'm still saying it's the HG I've never come across a broken oil cooler on our mk4's but have seen a few HG problems including my last one.

"It seems to be OK around town and when idling but after being on the motorway for more than 15-20min it will overheat"


That one especially makes me think HG, there's a fair few threads on the ukmivs site

Read a little more carefully and not on an iphone, and yes, it is sounding more like a headgasket.....

Looks like it is HG after all, just wanted to make sure before I wasted money and done work not needed.

I have now started to get a little amount of mayo on oil cap which smells of Coolant but still nothing on dipstick.

Orderd erling HG for £20 and head bolts for £15 from eurocarparts after using promo code, my belt, tensioner and water pump was done less than 5k ago will I be ok re using my belt to keep costs down?

As for skimming if my heads warped how much can I get away with on standard HG (3 holes), is there anything else I need? And will I need to remove injectors and glow plugs for a skim if needed?


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Heads most likely fine, if it was warped your overheating and coolant loss would be a fair bit more extreme. You could always get it double checked with a straight edge. Just be sure to give it a dam good clean. I like really fine wet and dry paper on a block. Something like 1000 grit from halfords, not the cheap crappy one.

If you want to though it's usually around 40-50 quid, head skim has no effect on gasket, that's to do with piston protrusion.

Belt etc should be fine

Cheers folks will get stuck into it next weekend hopefully it's all goes well with no surprises!


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Going to tackle this at the weekend hopefully, it's been a while since I have done a timing belt, after looking over the Bentley manual I'm slightly confused when removing and fitting the timing belt.

From what I have read it tells me to remove belt just before TDC and refit belt near TDC with all cam lobes in a V position doesn't seem very accurate can someone explain this in simple terms lol


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Only lobes for #1 cylinder you need to worry about, they should be in a v configuration.

I like to set it at tdc then remove the head, do what needs doing then line up crank with the marks then rotate it back 90 degrees. This way there's no chance of any valves hitting any pistons when torquing it down.

Once the heads on you can line up the cam with the locking tool at the vac pump end then rotate the crank forwards to line it up. The cam sprocket should still be loose anyway and you can loosen the pump one too.

Now it's just a case of slipping the belt on and tensioning it up.

The thing with the pulleys is mainly the IP one, you need to move the pulley in a way that when you fit and tension the belt the bolt heads end up near the middle of the slots so you have plenty of room for adjustment. If they're to far off to one end you might struggle to get the injection timing right.

Got the head off today only took me 5 hours lol there was a bit more stuff to remove than I thought there would of been but got there in the end.
Gasket is blown between piston 2+3 by the looks of it there's also a lot of hard black stuff there is that a concern?

I'm not sure if the gasket has maybe been done on it before, the clean parts of the head that touches the gasket looks scratched as if it's been sanded or is it meant to be like that ?

I did go over it with a ruler and feeler gauge both head and block seem ok but I haven't cleaned the faces up yet


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As long as there's no big grooves it should be fine, I think I'd maybe get an engineers opinion though if it's blowing between cylinders, might be worth the small bit extra so you don't have to do it again.

Hard black stuff? Like carbon crap around the tops of cylinders and on the tops of the pistons?

Here's a pic of the gasket where it has blown

And here is the black stuff I'm on about does look like carbon
Also tried to get a pic of the sanding marks


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I can get a 002 feeler gauge under a flat edge on that part of the cylinder head after I cleaned it up but block is fine think I will get away with it?


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Clean everything spotless except in the cylinders, always leave them alone, the rest is just crud from the gasket etc.

Personal preference is a fine blade to get the bigger chunks off then fine wet and dry paper with a block to clean the rest off till it's all nice and clean.

I'm really not sure on the 002 gap, I think if there's any doubt it's off to the engineers I go unless you're prepared to go through this again.

If it was my car I'd maybe go for it but if it someone elses car that I was doing the job on though it'd be to the engineers

Decided just to hope for the best and put it all back together.
Now have a little issue with timing I don't have any of the VW tools so haven't locked anything.
Timed everything up to where TDC should be and tried to turn it over by hand but stopped stiff almost instantly, flywheel is it TDC got fuel pump at TDC so as the cam sprocket isn't taperd I'm thinking it must have moved when trying to tighten it.
Also don't have a tool for the belt tensioner is there anything common that can be used tried a flat head and some screws in a piece of metal which almost got it lined up till the screw snapped might need to make another with bigger screws


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Tut tut lol

Get the crank at tdc, with the vac pump off you can see the slot, it should sit bang on with the top of the head, make sure the #1 valves are both sticking up in a V.

For the tensioner you'll need to make something or that, there's just no way round it, you turn the centre piece till the pointer lines up with a groove then tighten the 13mm nut.

You can do the belt without the tools but you still need something for the tensioner, with the lining up you can tdc the crank, check the cam alignment visually and stick a drill bit in the pump.

I got an old tool for getting the grinder discs off then drilled a hole at the right distance to fit the tensioner then just stuck in a self tapper and chopped the head off, still works a treat lol.

Need to get inventive

I've got hope in her lol

I've been using the flywheel for crank TDC is it accurate enough?
Both lobes on camshaft for cylinder one are in v shape and tappets look fully up, just watched some YouTube videos and saw people using a drill bit for fuel pump 6mm I think? Great idea So will start with that align flywheel remove vac pump and check where cam is sitting I'm 90% sure that will be the issue.

Then I just got to get something for the tensioner why didn't they make it simple !


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How are you ensuring that you've got the cam properly lined up? Just having the lobes on the #1 cylinder up isn't enough. With the vacuum pump removed the end slot in the cam needs to be parallel to the cylinder head: without a tool specifically for this you'll need to improvise one. Be sure to NOT look to try and tighten the cam sprocket bolt with anything stuck in the end of the cam because you can end up breaking the end of the cam; just line stuff up and hold the cam gear when tightening the bolt. If you look at the procedures you'll get a good idea on what you need to do/improvise.

Yes on going by the flywheel for locating TDC. If it's a manual transmission it's a bit difficult to see the marks. When I did my TB I had to use my camera to snap pictures so I could get a closer look at the marks. Watch that the crank doesn't move when you install the belt and tighten things down.

Also, make sure you turn the tensioner in the correct (clockwise) direction! Have read/heard of instances in which dealers have managed to turn it incorrectly!

Or just rent the correct tools

oldpoopie said:

Or just rent the correct tools

Click to expand...

Yes!

Really, this is pretty important. If you mess up you can end up with a HUGE hole in your wallet!

oldpoopie said:

Or just rent the correct tools

Click to expand...

UhOh said:

Yes!

Really, this is pretty important. If you mess up you can end up with a HUGE hole in your wallet!

Click to expand...

He's in the UK, it's cheaper to buy another engine than it is to buy the tools and renting isn't really an option, not a common thing in the UK.

But once you've finished and the belts all tensioned it's pretty easy to see if you've got it right or not, cam slot not parallel? You need to do it again lol.

Just means it can take longer to do the job.

Special tools-

Cam lock is a wrench that fits in the slot
Tensioner tool is a 90deg pair of circlip pliers
Cam sprocket tool is a brass punch and hammer
IP lock is a drill bit or electric screwdriver philips bit

But you can't skimp on the VCDS to set the timing.

That head has been off before, you can see the sanding marks.

Looks more like bad machining, seen it before, end of the day and they say sod it and chuck it on from the scrap pile. Probably why it's blown.

worst one I seen was on a 306td, surprised it ever held at all!

turbovan+tdi said:

Cam sprocket tool is a brass punch and hammer

Click to expand...

Still need something for a counter-hold. Don't want to use the cam lock (in the cam end's slot [vacuum pump end]) to hold as you can end up breaking the end of the cam.