Losing water.....HELPP!!!!

[Bushen]

Hi guys

my audi a4 1.8t is now losing quite alot of water and after about 50 minutes of cruising i have to fill the water back up. My car however is not overheating. It was fine until my friend cleaned out the radiator and since then my water warning light keeps coming up.....Any suggestion on what it could be?? My worries are that it could be my headgasket!?!? Cheers

 

[B5NUT]

If there is no oil in the water, then it's unlikely to be the head gasket. I guess I would be looking for leak's around the radiator hoses, or the drain plug is not secure.

 

[jamie226bhp]

small leak in rad perhaps that somone used radweld or similar on and the flush through has made it come back

 

[Bushen]

Well when my friend cleaned the rad out.....it was full of brown crap basically...once we had cleaned the rad out you could see oil in the brown crap.

 

[B5NUT]

What about oil in the expansion tank? It should be visible on there.

The brown crap will mostly be rust, someone has not put enough coolant in the system.

 

[Bushen]

And the expansion tank would be?? sorry im not very mechanically minded and only know the very basics about cars.

 

[B5NUT]

it's the tank where you add the water to the system if you stick your finger in there and pull it out does the water feel oily?

 

[Bushen]

Yeh put my finger in it and its like a brown cream?!?

 

[aragorn]

Sounds like the headgasket, or perhaps the oil cooler then mate

 

[Bushen]

But wouldnt it be water in the oil instead of oil in the water....cos theres no water in the oil.....also its not miss-firing and the exhaust is not kicking white smoke and its not overheating??? its just really confusing!?!? lol

 

[aragorn]

oil pressure is much higher than the coolant pressure, so it could just blow thru in one direction?

Might be worth try another oil cooler before condemning the gasket?

 

[Mike B]

Have you checkedthe tank for cracks?We had this on a 2.5 TDI recently and They are only £12 to replace and I was told that they are a regular seller .THe tank can be removed easily without discnnecting any pipes and its worth a look

 

[Bushen]

I dont think its head gasket anymore....spoke to a mechanic and he said if it aint miss firing and the oil colour is fine...which it is then its not head gasket...gonna give it too him on thursday to check it out anyways.

 

[aragorn]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]You have oil in the coolant. The only place it could come from is the head gasket or the oil cooler.

 

[Bushen]

What about anti freeze...does that give off the same effect if mixed with water..like oil does?? that rainbow coloured mixture?