Hellish coolant leak

Chris_TDI_98

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2012
Location
Hartford, CT
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI 1.9L mk3 1Z AHU
Great news. As of 1pm today, the new freeze plug is installed, and the hellish coolant leak out the back of the engine, has stopped!
The engine is running quieter than it has in a while.
The coolant temp gauge is working well too, gets up to about 140F.
Installing the freeze plug was a LOT easier than expected.
All we had to do was:
1. Jack up car on passenger and driver sides until front wheels are off ground.
2. Remove oil line (related to turbo) to make room.
3. Snake your hand up past the subframe and inner axle boot, push the rubber freeze plug into the hole, and tighten hex nut with a 1/4 inch socket.
Here’s a pic of the missing freeze plug, from under the car:


Pic of actual rubber freeze plug we used, size 1 3/8 inch, cost $5.39 at Napa:
 
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Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Those are good for emergencies but I would only rely on it until the weather gets good enough that you can replace with the real thing.

You'll have to remind yourself in the late spring / summer that you need to replace this with valid frost plug.

Steve
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
That’s not a freeze plug... but at least it’s drivable.

Your temp gauge only gets to 140°?

-Todd
 

tdidieselbobny

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Stafford,NY (WNY)
TDI
'03 Galactic Blue Jetta TDI, '15 Silk Blue Golf Sportwagen TDI
With that oil coating in picture, looks like the turbo or oil line will probably fail before the lawn roller plug.....I suggest you start looking for another car....
 

RoseBud68

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2016
Location
PSL FL
TDI
'99 mk3 Jetta 1.9
LOL...guess you have to do what you have to do to get by...time to look for another car.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
That plug is probably the nicest part on his car. Seriously, check out his other threads. I'd be looking for a better JOB so I could get a better car.

Hopefully his luck turns around. There are loads of job openings out there.
 

Chris_TDI_98

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2012
Location
Hartford, CT
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI 1.9L mk3 1Z AHU
Thank you guys for the advice, you’re more or less right...
We found the source of the oil “leak”, it’s the hard plastic breather hose between the “hockey puck” (on top of the engine, I forget the name of it), the bottom of the breather hose is melted so the Allen cap screws fail to hold it tight to the block, so oil slowly drips and dribbles out of the bottom of that breather hose slowly over time and coats the entire underside of the engine and subframe. It looks a lot worse than it really is, I just need to get a new breather hose and oil leak will be solved.
Maintenance work to do on this car:
1. Breather hose
2. HD shocks and springs or Passat rear struts.
3. Heater core.
4. Body rust reformer with chemical spray.
5. Injection pump seals.
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Passat rear struts will be too long for the Mk3, they also use a 12mm bolt at the bottom vs the 10mm used on the Mk3 cars. Best to stick with struts specified for your car.

Steve
 

Chris_TDI_98

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2012
Location
Hartford, CT
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI 1.9L mk3 1Z AHU
Just noticed coolant dripping from the radiator.
Probably caused by ice having expanded inside the radiator and burst thru the internal radiator piping.
Is the radiator made of plastic pipe surrounded by aluminum fins?
 

RoseBud68

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2016
Location
PSL FL
TDI
'99 mk3 Jetta 1.9
Damn, when it snows, it pours.

The rad core should be alum or copper.
Truth be told, its self inflicted. Coolant leak for months and did nothing but Add water so he can drive it. Mix that with freezing temp and Boom....:rolleyes:

Rad are Plastic with a Alum core. Its toast. Find one on ebay.
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
1. Breather hose
2. HD shocks and springs or Passat rear struts.
3. Heater core.
4. Body rust reformer with chemical spray.
5. Injection pump seals.
6. Radiator

#4 is funny; just spray used motor oil on the rust... it’ll slow it down. Unless you learn to do this stuff yourself, your car is totaled.

Why you were bothering with LEDs, and other crazy wants, and ignoring the actual car is beyond me.

-Todd
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Just noticed coolant dripping from the radiator.
Probably caused by ice having expanded inside the radiator and burst thru the internal radiator piping.
Is the radiator made of plastic pipe surrounded by aluminum fins?
Junk yard radiator from a 2.0L 4 cyl car should be sufficient. The ABA 4 cyl gas MT shares the same radiator as the 1Z and AHU powered cars.

I had wondered when you mentioned that you were using just water, how long the radiator would last. Further, I wouldn't get too settled either, the heater core may present itself with a leak also, those are particularly bad on these cars, there should have been a recall years ago but VW managed to wiggle their way out of it on the Mk3. They weren't so luck on the early B3 cars or IIRC some of the Mk2 cars.

Steve
 

Chris_TDI_98

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2012
Location
Hartford, CT
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI 1.9L mk3 1Z AHU
I go to refill some coolant due to radiator leak and I’m greeted by this. What’s the most likely causes? How could I track it down ?
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
This thread is like watching a meteor crash into the Earth in slow motion. Nothing you can do, just sit back and watch the Fail unfold.

Seriously, I wish I could just give you a car, LOL. Just to see you stop spending money and time on this turd.

At least there won't be any rust under the hood!
 

JETaah

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Location
mi 48836
TDI
96 B4V, 1999.5 jettaIV,2005 BEW Beetle
Diagnose this issue?
How about this from page two?:eek:


How about this...
Take the small overflow hose off the reservoir and plug the reservoir's nipple.
Get a bicycle pump or a compressor (18PSI max) and adapt it to the hose and start pumping. It is bound to show up if it is externally leaking.
 

Camel413

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2010
Location
South East Missouri
TDI
96 Passat Wagen Totaled, 95 Passat GLX future conversion
NO, just no, vacuum lines are not going to cause all the problems that you have. I would highly suggest taking some of the advise from the senior members on this board. They have advised you certain things to check for and procedures to do to help you. You seem to be more interested in guessing about all your problems instead of actually fixing anything the correct way.
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Is it possible for vacuum lines connected wrong to cause this oil spray??
Unlikely, but what you need to do now is wash all that crap off the engine and sit and watch what happens when it runs.

It could be that this is antifreeze but it has more of a fuel / oil look to it.

Replace your damaged radiator then clean the engine (not high pressure wash) and watch for where the stuff is coming from.

Steve
 

JETaah

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Location
mi 48836
TDI
96 B4V, 1999.5 jettaIV,2005 BEW Beetle
Is it possible for vacuum lines connected wrong to cause this oil spray??
My Bad...
I thought you had coolant spraying.


Possibly turbo oil feed line is loose or cracked or loose oil filter. Oil cooler orings ????
How far did you drive it before seeing that? How much oil is left in crankcase?
 
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Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
As a side note, your upper radiator hose appears to be a replacement. The factory hose has a sensor very close to where it attaches at the cylinder head flange. All the replacements I've seen do not have that sensor port.

Which begs the question, what happened to the temperature sensor that belongs in that hose? There aren't enough ports on the flange this hose attaches to at the cylinder head to support another sensor...so where did it go?

Here's the factory hose arangement:



The only way your car would have had a hose without the sensor port is if you didn't have AC and I can tell by the placement of your alternator that you have AC. Very few Mk3 cars came to the US without AC but there were a few.

Steve
 

turbodieseldyke

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Location
Free Mustache Rides
TDI
98 jetta
Don't distract him. He's got bigger things on his list, to tackle.

Just stick a jumper wire in the empty 2-prong plug. Worst thing that can happen, is the AC won't run without it. Get the car running first, then fix the springs, then the seat covers, then the LED blinkers, then the AC.
 

Matt-98AHU

Loose Nut Behind the Wheel Vendor
Joined
Apr 23, 2006
Location
Gresham, OR
TDI
2001 Golf TDI, 2005 Passat wagon, 2004 Touareg V10.
This thread is like watching a meteor crash into the Earth in slow motion. Nothing you can do, just sit back and watch the Fail unfold.
Seriously, I wish I could just give you a car, LOL. Just to see you stop spending money and time on this turd.
At least there won't be any rust under the hood!
Is he out-tooefing tooef of 15 years ago??

Not sure his user name can replace the usage of tooef as a verb, however...
 

TDIDaveNH

Left Lane Coal Roller at Large
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Location
North Conway, NH
TDI
1997 Passat TDI x2 1984 Buick Century 4.3 diesel
Just noticed coolant dripping from the radiator.
Probably caused by ice having expanded inside the radiator and burst thru the internal radiator piping.
Is the radiator made of plastic pipe surrounded by aluminum fins?
Don't let that system freeze hard.....You'll have problems with every part of it.
No Way! Like OMG or whateverrrrrrrrr....
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Is he out-tooefing tooef of 15 years ago??
Not sure his user name can replace the usage of tooef as a verb, however...

I was seriously drawing some comparisons... and after tooef tooefed his car, I untooefed his car, which he tooefed again, so I gave him a car, which he promptly tooefed. :eek:
 

Tdijarhead

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 10, 2013
Location
Lawrenceville PA
TDI
2003 TDI Jetta Daughters Car, 2001 TDI Beetle, Wife’s car, 2005 Golf TDI Mine, all 5 spds
I was seriously drawing some comparisons... and after tooef tooefed his car, I untooefed his car, which he tooefed again, so I gave him a car, which he promptly tooefed. :eek:
Ohhhh...coffee just came out my nose....
 

Jetta SS

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Location
Grand Bay, AL
TDI
'98 Jetta
I was seriously drawing some comparisons... and after tooef tooefed his car, I untooefed his car, which he tooefed again, so I gave him a car, which he promptly tooefed. :eek:
anyone got a link to the old tooef thread? Either I don't remember or before my membership here.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Oh there were probably several.

The gist was, he bought a pretty clapped out rusty 1985 Jetta diesel. It had a crap load of blow by past the rings (in addition to other things), so another club member MOGolf drug it to my shop one weekend, and we did a very quick rering on it, I probably did a couple other things too, really cannot remember, and then he took it back to him.

Then, he I think crashed it, so I gave him a reasonably straight 1986 Golf diesel that had no engine, and someone else swapped drivetrains for him.

The Golf then got crashed or something.

Then somewhere along the line he finally did get a TDI, a rough but driveable '99.5 Golf, but then that ended up broken..

So long story short, he now drives a Prius, which to be honest, is probably a good thing for him, and a good thing for Volkswagens everywhere.

This is tooef today:



All in good fun, of course, I enjoy his enthusiasm and car nerdery and find I have a lot in common with him. Except the Prius part. He can have those.
 
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