water in the oil/ 2006 brm Jetta

Hi, I am looking for advice on what to look for next.

I noticed a couple of months ago that I was getting oil into the coolant tank, but there was no sign of water in the oilpan. We replaced the oil cooler and flushed the system and everything appeared to be normal.

Two weeks ago while my wife was driving home the oil light came on so I had her park the car, the next day I did some checking and this time there was water in the pan and oil in the coolant tank.

I replaced the headgasket over the weekend, along with all the necessary seals and gaskets. I took the head to a machinist and he said the head was in perfect condition. Put everything together and the car fired right up. After driving it today and getting it up to temp I parked it at home, went out later and it appears I am still getting water in the pan.

Any ideas?

Have you investigated the oil cooler? it is below the oil filter and is fairly easy to change.

Noticed you checked the oil cooler already.


Possibly a cracked head.

Cracked piston liner? Ive had that happen on a tractor before. O-rings on one of the liners also.

I cant imagine why the head would crack, the car has neevr been hot, and the machinist checked it with a .002 feeler and it was tight everywhere on the face of the head. Car has never been in an accident, and has always been checked before winter, as far as a cracked block due to freezing.
I dont believe these have cylinder liners, as the block is cast iron and the head is aluminum. All of the cylinder bores were in excellent condition, no ring ridge, could still see the factory cross-hatch on every one.

This is after the fact.. I would have sent the head to Frank06..to magna flux/check for cracks..

How much water is in the oil? alot or a little? did you check the CCV hose to make sure it is clear?

Either you have a cracked block/head/oil cooler/blown gasket..or you have condensation accumulating in the CC.

You did follow the service instructions to the letter, as far as torquing the head and stepping the torque, criss-crossing and replacing the TTY's?

If its water in the oil and an OA will tell you so..then you have a condensation/CCV problem..

Now if its coolant then you have a gasket failure or a cracked component..

like mach1 said, should have just took it to get magnafluxed anywhere that does engine machining, it only would have taken 20mins to check for something that obvious. doubt its the block but weirder things have happened I suppose.

You don't magniflux aluminum heads. There are no liners.

One standard for a cylinder head that is holding back 19.5:1 compression is to RESURFACE THE HEAD. To reinstall the head without doing that is just taking a chance.

Often times, the center of the head is not where the problem is. The back of the head across the exhaust ports will bow up. Also the driver's side rear corner will rise. There is an oil port that can blow oil into the water at that point.

Let me know if you need some help.

Thanks for the info Frank. I took the head to a machinist that I trust, and stood there and watched as he checked the surface, .002 was tight everywhere on the head.
I made sure to follow the specs on torque pattern and stepping up to 44ft lbs plus 180 degrees tty (if I am recalling correctly, I am currently at work and not looking at my bentley). All new head bolts were used of course.
What seems wierd to me is we changed the oil cooler in early December and the trouble went away, until it came back earlier this month. I cannot imagine that the new cooler went bad, but my parts guy said they have had bad parts out of the box before.
Someone mentioned the CCV hose being blocked, in my mind if that were the case it would be pushing oil out of the case, causing smoke out the tailpipe, which is not the case, also if it was forcing oil out of the case, it would not be getting replaced with water from the cooling system.
Other than the oil cooler and headgasket area, the only places I can fathom that the oil and coolant can mix is inside the block and head themselves.
This is extremely frustrating.

Oh, my parts guy got me a replacement oil cooler to try, so that will be going on tomorrow. Before I do that I am going to change the oil and try to determine how much water is actually in the pan. I will also disconnect the coolant lines from the cooler and loop them, eliminating the cooler from the system, then once the car is up to temp I am going to see if is pumping oil out of the coolant ports on the cooler.

Good call on bypassing the cooler until you can rule it out. If it was my A5, that would be the first thing I would suspect with a close second being the EGR valve.....................

I didn't think about the oil cooler. Vacuum test the oil cooler. It's not hard to do. Stick with name brands. There are too many LLC parts out there.(low cost Chinese)

Still, I never send out a head without resurfacing. That way I can guarantee it will seal.

Franko6 said:

You don't magniflux aluminum heads. There are no liners.

One standard for a cylinder head that is holding back 19.5:1 compression is to RESURFACE THE HEAD. To reinstall the head without doing that is just taking a chance.

Often times, the center of the head is not where the problem is. The back of the head across the exhaust ports will bow up. Also the driver's side rear corner will rise. There is an oil port that can blow oil into the water at that point.

Let me know if you need some help.

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yea I meant the spray for alluminum heads to find cracks.. am I right by saying their is such a thing?

Ol'Rattler said:

Good call on bypassing the cooler until you can rule it out. If it was my A5, that would be the first thing I would suspect with a close second being the EGR valve.....................

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the cooler wont put coolant in the oil in most cases and I'm not sure what you are saying with the egr valve.. maybe the cooler but that would plug the intake and eat coolant.

05_new_jetta said:

the cooler wont put coolant in the oil in most cases and I'm not sure what you are saying with the egr valve.. maybe the cooler but that would plug the intake and eat coolant.

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My bad. I guess a leaking cooler would put oil in the coolant not coolant in the oil and AFAIK there is no interface between the coolant and oil in the in the EGR valve either..............................

05_new_jetta said:

yea I meant the spray for alluminum heads to find cracks.. am I right by saying their is such a thing?

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You were just quoting the wrong NDI method for aluminum. You meant Dye Penetrate or if done with a black light, Zyglow.

Ol'Rattler said:

You were just quoting the wrong NDI method for aluminum. You meant Dye Penetrate or if done with a black light, Zyglow.

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yep I just had a brain fart when I said to magnaflux an alluminum head haha!!

I still say send it to Frank, as he knows what he is doing..I might even go on to say he is a VW Guru..machine style. Any heads I pull, will go to him for at least a check.

Has the OP made the deteremination if its coolant or water?

I found oil in my coolant tank today. My hope was it was a failed cooler. I removed it and inspected it. No corrosion, looks like new. I got the idea to connect my cylinder leak down tester to the coolant fittings on the cooler. I blocked one end and adapted the leak down hose with 5/8ths heater hose and some clamps to the other fitting. The cylinder leak down tool does not use full shop pressure. It is regulated down. The needle showed zero leakage and I could not hear any leak from the cooler. I then took a bucket of water and dropped the whole assembly into the bucket. Sure enough a steady stream of bubbles. Disconnect the shop air and the bubbles quit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv8qZJSBC1w