Heads up! Check you cylinder head fasteners.

[SuperJ]

No pun intended...
If you can get to them, you might want to check to make sure your cylinder had fasteners have been tightened properly at the factory.
I've been having blown headgasket symptoms for the last couple of weeks.
Finally got it narrowed down and took it in to get fixed to a trusted shop.
The mechanic phoned me to tell me that 2 of my cylinder heads bolts were barely finger tight when he went to remove them. Since the gasket was leaking I still have to get it replaced, but am now wondering if I should get him to check any other fasteners.

My valve cover had fasteners that had totally loosening off when I removed it to do my first cam inspection.

Yay for VW QC!!!!

For the record I'm just rolling over 100k miles and have done the following work in the 2 months. Clutch (dmf failure), Cam replacement, headgasket, and timing belt. Getting to be $$$$!

 

[TurbineWhine]

That is very intersting to know. Lossened head bolts that are VW factory installed. Sounds to me like VW may have overtorqued them at the factory, even though that is pretty hard to believe. Don't know what your "blown head gasket symptoms" were, but given the loose bolts, I would have the head pulled, gasket replaced and new head bolts installed. Just my 2 cents.

TW

 

[SuperJ]

Yeah, I'm getting the job done properly anyways. Once a gasket leaks you can't trust it.
My symptoms were basically my coolant would overflow whenever I used almost any boost. It started with having to add coolant every week a month ago, and now I have to add coolant ever 20km if I drive it. The car has been parked for a week and half, and is getting fixed right now.

 

[Harvieux]

My valve cover had fasteners that had totally loosening off when I removed it to do my first cam inspection.

Nearly every BEW/BRM I perform service on has loose VC bolts and usually they are the rear bolts and the first two which are stepped up along the side of the VC. It has been a part part of our regiment to tighten these at every service visit for a long time now. Later!

 

[jayson9]

Nearly every BEW/BRM I perform service on has loose VC bolts and usually they are the rear bolts and the first two which are stepped up along the side of the VC. It has been a part part of our regiment to tighten these at every service visit for a long time now. Later!

How about the Head Bolts? Seen any of those loose from the factory?

 

[Strack]

Very interesting. I bought a new Fiat Strada back in 1981, a cool car but experienced the usual Fiat problems. In my owners manual as part of the PDI (pre-delivery inspection) Fiat recommended that the dealer check and re tourqe the head bolts. Were they forward thinking or just being cautious when dealing with head gaskets & high compression engines?

My point is, there is lots of compression in a diesel engine and if those bolts werent torqued down properly at the factory, you can imagine what will happen over time. Probably a rare occurence for VW, but very frustrating for the owner of this or any vehicle.

 

[Harvieux]

How about the Head Bolts? Seen any of those loose from the factory?

I don't recall any head gasket issues on either the BEWs or BRMs to date. I have run into EGR cooler issues both from a coolant loss scenario (BEW) to EGR cooler exhaust leak scenarios (BRM). I truly had no reason to suspect checking head bolts and until otherwise proven, I see no reason to just pull VCs to check head bolts. Now, maybe I will check them on the next cam wear inspection. I have pulled a couple BRM heads lately and the head bolts seemed to be properly torqued as far as I could tell. Later!

 

[SuperJ]

Here's an update.
The bolts that were loose were two outside corner bolts, only one side leaked. The leak was outwards to towards the edge of the engine. I'll post a picture of the head gasket later on.

Another observation was significantly eroded glow plugs. The stock NGK were replaced by supposedly superior newer NGK glow plugs. Does this indicate any problems?

I had them take this opportunity to forget to re-install my EGR system.

 

[SuperJ]

The two "square" corner, head bolts were loose. Only leaked on one side though. You can see evidence of the leakage on the headgasket.

Glow plugs were shot too. I not sure if the really bad plug was from the leaky cylinder or not though.

 

[Dimitri16V]

glow plugs don't errode , one is missing a piece. did you see any signs of impact in the cylinder with the "worn" glow plug ?

aren't the engines assembled in Germany or polland ?

 

[SuperJ]

I have a polish engine in my car. Mechanic didn't mention any damage to that cylinder. There is a chance that the one broke off in the cardboard box of loose parts he gave me. I simply said my glow plugs were worn to the point of needing replacement, but didn't say one failed badly.

I'll just have to watch the engine and hope it will ok for another 160,000km at least.

 

[MOGolf]

Those pictures don't present a good picture of ceramic NGK plugs. The Bosch ceramics in BEW and BHW engines have been recalled.

Was there no CEL?

 

[DidJettarun]

Aaron at BoraParts swears that the BRMs do not have ceramic glow plugs...hence the exclusion from the Recall. DanG144 and I pulled mine out to take a look and they sure appeared to be ceramic but I did not check the part numbers to confirm. That will teach me to be careful....I guess that it is time to call VOA and give them my VIN to check it out once and for all.

It would be better to know for sure if the plug was damaged after is was uninstalled through rough handling or before it was removed. If it came apart in the engine you probably should replace the oil cooler and drop the oil pan and clean just to see if any pieces appear or metal shavings from the cylinder and piston grinding up the plug debris. I would at least do a UOA...perhaps unusual metal wear might alert you to check further.

Was there any soot on the outside of the block or indications of a leak...or simply the mechanic alerting you to the loose head bolts? I would be interested to know the answer to that question

 

[SuperJ]

I diagnosed the head gasket myself. And no, there was no CEL for head gasket or glow plugs.
I was getting coolant overflow, even after isolating the EGR.
I was not overheating. The headgasket seemed like the only probable thing, after a few more troubleshooting steps.

My mechanic alerted me to the head bolts when he did the work. He discovered the worn glow plugs in process. I asked him today about the shorter one. He said it came out that way. He is a careful mechanic who works cleanly so I would be surprised if he damaged it.

He inspected both the pistons and cylinder head for foreign object damage and could not find any signs of damage.

 

[SuperJ]

Are my glow plugs in the pictures steel or ceramic?
They do say 7V on them. Does this mean 7 volts?

 

[MOGolf]

NGK CZ101 are ceramic plugs.

C = ceramic
Z = QGS (quick glow system) sheathed

visit the NGK website for further information.