Lots and lots of white smoke!

[Daveabuk]

Hi all, on a leisurely drive today taking in the sunshine I pulled over to have a quick drink and talk with a friend. After leaving the car for 10 mins, when I returned I was greeted with a lot of white smoke and a warning saying to stop engine and check coolant. I did and the bottle was empty. As I was in the middle of no where with no phone signal, I filled the coolant up with water from my bottle and headed home ASAP. After a few miles the smoke cleared and the coolant lasted. As I was pulling onto my drive the coolant light came on again. Topped up and started the engine and hello smoke.

Car is a 2014 A4 B8 facelift. 2.0tdie 136.

Now I thought the days of head gaskets blowing were gone in modern day cars but I may be wrong.

There doesn't seem to be an rise in oil, no white gunk in the oil cap so I assume water is leaking into one of the cylinders? No loss of power at all.

Any opinions?
Thanks!

 

[Daveabuk]

Hi, I've been told that it may also be the EGR Cooler that's cracked. I've just started the car this morning and it started fine and idled fine again. After 30 seconds or so the coolant started to go down quite noticeable and the white smoke came.

Is thus a common problem and is there any way to diagnose if its faulty without removing the unit? The coolant pipes seem to be under normal pressure when having a squeeze.

I cant get it to a garage today but would like to try and pinpoint if I can. Still cannot see any coolant mixing with the oil under the filler cap. Anyone have any tests I can do to diagnose if its indeed the cooler or the head gasket?

Thanks.

 

[pelhamsdetailing]

I don't know how tight these engines are plumbed regarding the EGR and EGR cooler, but if it isn't tight, you could potentially take the inlet and outlet coolant lines going to the EGR cooler, plumb them together i.e. bypassing the EGR cooler altogether, run the engine and see if you're still losing coolant or not.

 

[Daveabuk]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I did do that and didn't lose any coolant at all but still got lots of white smoke. I assume this is the coolant burning off that's sat in the exhaust?

I have now replaced the cooler but lost a bolt that attaches it to the engine so currently sourcing another one. A quick test (being careful) shows that no more coolant is being lost now. So hopefully the white smoke is just what remains in the exhaust system.

Thanks.

 

[pelhamsdetailing]

That's promising news. Good stuff mate. Anything left over in the exhaust will be burnt off.

All the best going forward!

 

[Daveabuk]

Quick update. Got the bolts replaced, audi charge me £3.40 for them. Lots and lots of driving and zero coolant loss or smoke. Very happy. Thanks!