please help my golf tdi 130 bhp overheating issue

[vw754]

bit of a mystery to me this one.
golf tdi 130 bhp mk 4 2002

no fault codes at all

drove the car from burton upon trent to stoke on trent....no problem

then from stoke to bradford 94 miles at 80+mph there about.........2 days later started overheating,bubbles out expansion tank,coolant not overflowing,then my nephew noticed its only when he go's above 60 mph it overheats,so he drove down to stoke at 50mph (only time the 50mph limits helped lol)
soon as he got to stoke a500 put his foot down,overheated......next day i flushed coolant system,took off all coolant pipes,fitted new thermostat......drove back bradford fine no problems,a day later it overheats,driving locally,but is intermittent.

any ideas?

 

[KrisKrk]

Have you checked water pump?

 

[B5NUT]

Sounds like a HG failure, had the same fault on my old B5 1.9TDi engine, a new head gasket fixed the fault.

 

[desertstorm]

Water pump failures quite common on these with the plastic impellor.

Change the cambelt whilst you are there if it hasn't been done recently.
OE pumps have plastic impellors, I replaced mine with a Kolbenschmidt item that has a metal impellor.
around 3 minutes shows a quick way of seeing if there is any flow from the pump.

 

[KrisKrk]

When head gasket blew in 1.9TDI 2005 A4 I had a rapid coolant loss, engine temperature gauge flying over and below 90 and cold/ hot air blowing in the cabin, despite temperature set to 24-25 or high.
If all or any listed symptoms you have, it might be the gasket.
If it's just overheating, as you describe, it could be the water pump.

Any luck so far?