205k...... Blown Headgasket

Terry270

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
Maybe the buyback is the way to go? Lol

Stopped blowing hot air long story short air was in the heater core, bled the system, will be fine until you drive it hard then air will bleed over to the cooling system again.
 

St.Hubbins

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Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Location
Nashville
TDI
'10 Golf, DSG / '11 A3, DSG (both went buyback) - '15 GSW SE
argh! what's the repair situation looking like?
 

Terry270

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Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
Well talked it over with the wife and she can't think of a car she'd rather have lol.

So first I'm going to try installing ARP head studs. A friend of mine who has built big power TDIs told me that he has had this same problem out of cars before when he turned the boost up, they would start getting bubbles in the cooling system and he studded it for more clamping force and it stopped. And if for some reason it doesn't work I haven't lost anything as they are reusable.

So yeah looks like we're fixing it. I'll update as to if this works or not or if the head needs to come off. If the head does need to come off I'll probably get a valve job, seals and everything to make sure it's good for a long time
 
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RebelTDI

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Nov 1, 2009
Location
Boston, MA
TDI
2016 Audi Q5 TDI, 2016 BMW 535d Xdrive
It does have 205K on the odo... I'd take the buyback and consider an etron or a 328d. Best of luck.
 

Terry270

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Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
It does have 205K on the odo... I'd take the buyback and consider an etron or a 328d. Best of luck.
Not interested in the etron and we both like the 335d but let's face it they are junk and I'd be working on it all the time and throwing a ton of money at it. She also likes the A6 TDI but I'm not buying that expensive of a car for her to put no less than 75 miles a day on.
 

St.Hubbins

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Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Location
Nashville
TDI
'10 Golf, DSG / '11 A3, DSG (both went buyback) - '15 GSW SE
i'm with you Terry - you've got a car you and the wife love, and you have the gumption to fix it. rock on (stay thirsty), my friend.
 

Terry270

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Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
i'm with you Terry - you've got a car you and the wife love, and you have the gumption to fix it. rock on (stay thirsty), my friend.
I even tried telling her that we could probably find a TDI golf, Jetta or Passat after they get fixed and this blows over but according to her the Passat is big and boring and she doesn't care for the Golf or Jetta lol. I agree with her, the A3 is definitely the best looking out of the TDIs
 

Terry270

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Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
I completely forgot about this thread. The car got a 30k mile used head and went back together with arp headstuds. I put on the cr170 and retuned to Malone stg 3. Awesome power and picked up a few more MPG too!
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
So it wasn't really the gasket but the head that was toasted? Did it over heat and warp? Haven't heard much of head issues on the VW platforms.
 

Terry270

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Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
So it wasn't really the gasket but the head that was toasted? Did it over heat and warp? Haven't heard much of head issues on the VW platforms.
There was a lot going on actually and I'm convinced that all of it was due to a bad repair by the Audi dealer. I'll start with what I know about the car. We bought it with 70k miles. I found the original owner and called her, it had gone through a fuel pump failure and had the entire fuel system replaced under warranty and around 60k miles the serpentine belt came loose and got behind the harmonic balancer and the car jumped time and bent valves. Dealer fixed it and she drove it for a few more months and traded it in.


Soon after we got it I was going through and fixing fuel, coolant and boost leaks so I was always wondering what kind of "fresh out of NADC or equivalent student" had done the repair.
Around 90k miles it got deleted and Malone tuned and it gave me a trouble free 115k miles at 42mpg average.

I think around 150k miles I installed a magnetic drain plug and on the next oil change I pulled out this stuff:


I did some searching and asked a few gurus but nobody had a clue WTH it was from and pretty much everyone agreed that if the car wasnt making any funny noises and was running great and getting good MPG that this was junk left in the oil pan from the old repair and to not worry about it.


On to the head gasket repair many miles later. After removing the valve cover we found that 3 of the rockers lost the roller, causing the cam lobe to ride on the pin that holds the roller(finally got an answer to WTH those half shells and roller bearings were!) Cam lobe actually didn't have much wear surprisingly (probably goes to show how good these synthetic oils are these days!) Maybe having 3 exhaust valves not fully opening caused higher cylinder pressures and caused combustion to leak over into coolant passages? Or just a bad head install from a wanna be mechanic?
 
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740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
talk about a basket case, looks like the car was in good hands thou.

Enjoy the tune
 

Ol'Rattler

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Location
PNA
TDI
2006 BRM Jetta
Seriously, take the buy back!!

The CR cars have so much expensive engineering fail built into them. Might be really nice to drive, but when your are out of the short extended warranty you won't thinks it's so nice when you have to dip into the kids college fund to fix it.
 

turbobrick240

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Location
maine
TDI
2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
^Sounds like he has already addressed the most common failure points. I think a lot of A3 owners took/are taking the buyback due to very high buyback valuation on them. That combined with the relatively small number produced should make them quite rare.
 

Terry270

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
Seriously, take the buy back!!
The CR cars have so much expensive engineering fail built into them. Might be really nice to drive, but when your are out of the short extended warranty you won't thinks it's so nice when you have to dip into the kids college fund to fix it.
I agree with you that they take some initial investment to make them reliable. I tell everyone who asks about a common rail to buy this immediately:
1. 2micron Fuel protection kit or CP3 kit
2. 2micron belt protection kit
3. Delete and tune

Once that is done I think we can all agree that they are quite reliable? My case is literally the only one I have heard about to this day, and I'm quite sure it is due to a bad repair at the dealer.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
Seriously, take the buy back!!
The CR cars have so much expensive engineering fail built into them. Might be really nice to drive, but when your are out of the short extended warranty you won't thinks it's so nice when you have to dip into the kids college fund to fix it.

Says the guy with engine that eats cams for breakfast. ;)
 

Ol'Rattler

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Location
PNA
TDI
2006 BRM Jetta
Says the guy with engine that eats cams for breakfast. ;)
You need to put the crack pipe down. ;) The cost of a cam and lifters is pocket change compared to the expensive failures those CR's have engineered into them. Let's see:
  • BRM cam replacement kit $549 in parts plus installation.
  • CR HPFP failure - $6,000 to $10,000 for complete fuel system replacement.
  • CR DPF failure - $1,266.95 plus installation.
  • CR 2009 Only Add $609 plus installation for a catalytic converter when replacing the DPF.
Even if the cam had to be replaced on a BEW/BRM at every T/B change, which it doesn't, I think even then the math speaks for it'self.
 
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Terry270

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
You need to put the crack pipe down. ;) The cost of a cam and lifters is pocket change compared to the expensive failures those CR's have engineered into them. Let's see:
  • BRM cam replacement kit $549 in parts plus installation.
  • CR HPFP failure - $6,000 to $10,000 for complete fuel system replacement.
  • CR DPF failure - $1,266.95 plus installation.
  • CR 2009 Only Add $609 plus installation for a catalytic converter when replacing the DPF.
Even if the cam had to be replaced on a BEW/BRM at every T/B change, which it doesn't, I think even then the math speaks for it'self.
Like I said before, a deleted and CP3'd car fixes that.
 
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