Kolb
Member
Hello,
Need some help diagnosing a problem. 2 days ago my 2009 Jetta TDI with the DSG started to produce a bunch of steam upon startup after a cold soak. The steam lasts about 10 seconds, then clears up. At first I just wrote it off as the relative dew point but now I smell the antifreeze. The car has 166,000 miles, has all the deletes done to it with a Malone stage 2 and DSG tune. The steam smells like burning antifreeze but the car does not run rough or miss. If I drive it to a restaurant when I come back out, there is no steam upon startup but there is a faint antifreeze smell.
My first thought was a head gasket but the car has never overheated and doesn't have a miss. Other than the steam, there are no driveability concerns, or Check Engine Lights etc. I'm wondering if it could have a bad seal in the turbocharger which would allow it to leak coolant. I'm assuming here that the turbo is water cooled.
Is it common on these to have a head gasket problem? Is there any way to pinpoint the coolant leak without digging down into it? I'm a little bewildered. If it is a head gasket, that doesn't scare me but I don't want to go through all of that if there are other, more common failure points to look at first.
Need some help diagnosing a problem. 2 days ago my 2009 Jetta TDI with the DSG started to produce a bunch of steam upon startup after a cold soak. The steam lasts about 10 seconds, then clears up. At first I just wrote it off as the relative dew point but now I smell the antifreeze. The car has 166,000 miles, has all the deletes done to it with a Malone stage 2 and DSG tune. The steam smells like burning antifreeze but the car does not run rough or miss. If I drive it to a restaurant when I come back out, there is no steam upon startup but there is a faint antifreeze smell.
My first thought was a head gasket but the car has never overheated and doesn't have a miss. Other than the steam, there are no driveability concerns, or Check Engine Lights etc. I'm wondering if it could have a bad seal in the turbocharger which would allow it to leak coolant. I'm assuming here that the turbo is water cooled.
Is it common on these to have a head gasket problem? Is there any way to pinpoint the coolant leak without digging down into it? I'm a little bewildered. If it is a head gasket, that doesn't scare me but I don't want to go through all of that if there are other, more common failure points to look at first.