1995 S6, blown head gasket?

[imported_BkkS6]

My 1995 S6, 5 cylinder 20V turbo engine with about 85,000 km, is mysterously losing about hald a liter of coolant every week. THere are no signs of coolant leakage around the engine block or plumming. One other symptom that I exerience is that it will misfire for about a minute on most cold starts. Checked the engine oil and it's not contaminated. The coolant resevoir does not have oil in it, but there seems to be some traces of carbon deposit. Otherwise, the engine runs fine.

What are the typical symptoms of a blown head gasket for an Audi. Do I have a blown head gasket? If not, what do you make of my symptoms?

 

[audi5e]

A slow coolant leak is difficult to trace without decent pressure testing equipment. Most garages should have some form of pressure test equipment. I would take it to your local garage and get them to test it.

Symptoms for blown gasket are amongst others: overheating, loss of coolant, loss of power, oil in the water making it creamy in colour. loss of pressure in the cylinders. If the gasket is blowing to the outside then you will hear the problem.

All coolant systems will get scale build up after a while.

Does your car still run on the correct temp? Apart from the poor cold starting are there any other symptoms?

 

[Broken Byzan]

I had this on my last car, it was "leaking" coolant into the cylinder, causing the misfire. It'll proably run ok for a week or so the start to run hot and pressurise the pipework etc.

I had mine tested to confirm what i knew with a dye, it changed colour to confirm gasses in coolant, AFAIK it was a fiver
HTH

 

[imported_BkkS6]

Engine temp is perfectly normal and there are no other symptoms. If not for the cold start misfire and slight coolant lost, I would say the car is in perfect condition.

Thanks for the comments guys.

 

[imported_deicide]

try running car from cold when the misfire happens let it turn over few times then pull spark plugs out if there is an excess of water on any of the plugs and check with light top of piston for water, this would confirm head gasket.