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My van is losing coolant/water and the oil level is rising, so clearly the coolant is leaking into the engine.
Are there different symptoms for the three likely causes:
Head/gasket fail
Oil cooler
Water pump
??
The heating has stopped working, though a good rev with the coolant tank cap off brought it back briefly. It's had the 'sealant gunk stuff' put through it for minor leaks. No leaks under passenger side carpet.
Thanks - and VW/T5 haters feel free to rejoice and mock (though why open the thread and read it?)
If it was the water pump, surely the water temp gauge would be going through the roof? Plus theres not normally any way for the oil and water to mix in this scenario.
Whenever I've had a HGF theres usually a lot more steam coming out of the exhaust.
Can you bypass the oil cooler temporarily and see if the oil level continues to rise?
Always normal temp. Haven't noticed lots of exhaust steam. Apparently the water pump failure is common and can mix the oil and coolant. We've discussed bypassing the oil cooler. Thanks.
Isn't the oil pressure higher than the water pressure. It the oil cooler were to fail oil would find its way into the coolant first. That was my experience when our Golf oil cooler failed. A Vesuvius of mayonnaise from the header tank.
Although I dont remember the actual details, get across to the T5 forum, there are a lot of examples of this written there as threads.
I've checked there ta, but replies can be slow. The different issues are described but not clear how to spot which one is responsible. My guess/hope is water pump, which would explain lack of heating (unless airlock responsible? Only traces of oil in coolant and limited emulsification evidence in oil, though level is higher.
The impeller of some VW water pumps detatches itself from its centre shaft. Our Passat did that. The no show heater was the first clue to poor / sporadic circulation. It's was impossible to bleed the cooling system as the pump wouldnt circulate the coolant.
That still doesn't explain why the water should be finding its way into the sump.
2.5tdi?
Different set up to normal cars due to everything being gear driven, water pump will probably be leaking into crankcase causing 'oil' level to rise.
Mcmoonter - I'm told on the 2.5 chain/gear driven engines the pump is part 'internal' (not sure myself) and can put water into the sump.
From the Brickyard forum -
The water pump is internal (as you will find in your reseach hereWink) and is not in the normal place. The water leak under the van is because the water pump has a chamber open to the air, if the water pump leaks it is supposed to all come out by this route but because of a second seal failure some, or sometimes all of it goes into the engine.
Waterpump would be my first guess. A known issue on the early 2.5 ones, as it is more intergrated on the gear driven engines. I'm getting mine changed at the next (100k) service i think, just to be sure.
I had a similar problem which turned out to be the waterpump
Just dropped it off and instructed them to head straight for the water pump. Will report back. Ta.
Water pump it was. My googling saved them time. New pump, oil and filters and a good flush out. £400. Expected much worse.