Headgasket??

[Shomail786]

Hey all, first time posting in this forum or any forum for that matter so pls go easy on me

Just recently bought a PFL A3 8V 1.6TDI with the DSG box. Car runs perfect engine and gearbox are fine, drove it home from Wolverhampton to Manchester with no problems, and have been driving it around local with no issues too.

First thing I noticed was the heater was always blowing cold, and I saw that in this generation there’s a silica bag that can split and block up the heater matrix so I ordered a new one.

However I also noticed after a long drive when I restarted the car, all the coolant had gone, and I had a light saying to fill up coolant. This was not during the drive but after the car had been parked up for about 20 mins and restarted. I’ve also been seeing thick white smoke coming from the exhaust which I assume is the coolant being burned off so all signs point to a headgasket leak, but spoke to my mechanic and he told me these car rarely have them.

I’ve attached a video of the coolant tank with some weird residue, I’m assuming it’s the oil mixing with the coolant. However the oil cap and dipstick are all clean and there’s no sign of coolant getting in the oil, which is usually the case?
So am I just really unlucky or could it be something else? I’ve seen people suggest EGR issues or maybe oil cooler leaks, but just wanted to see if anyone else had some insight.

Thanks

 

[northpole]

there are simple tester sticks that you can stick into it to make sure it's clean coolant with some weird additive or oil coming from a headgasket (could also be the oilcooler as they have a heat exhange where coolant and oil run closely together)

but i would get one of those tester kits and just use it it'll take away the guessing work.

 

[Shomail786]

there are simple tester sticks that you can stick into it to make sure it's clean coolant with some weird additive or oil coming from a headgasket (could also be the oilcooler as they have a heat exhange where coolant and oil run closely together)

but i would get one of those tester kits and just use it it'll take away the guessing work.

Thsnks for your reply northpole, will check out the test kits, garage just replaced heater matrix, flushed system and replaced coolant tank and the car seems to be perfect now. Heater is blowing hot and white smoke is basically all gone? Is it possible that the heater blockage was causing the white smoke? Coolant level seems to have gone down again but I think that’s due to the system removing air or something like that? I’ll fill it up tomorrow morning but I think I’m in the clear!