Losing coolant and Intermittent Starting Issue 2002 1.9 TDI

toledo19tdi

Active Member
May 21, 2018
6
0
Hello everyone :)

I purchased this car just over a week ago and although it drives very well and the engine pulls strongly through all gears I have noticed a couple of issues I would like to address. The Car as above is an 02 Toledo 1.9 TDI with the ASV engine.

Issue #1 == Losing a bit of coolant, every 2 -3 days the low coolant alert on the dash goes off, I top it back up and the warning light goes away until another 2-3 days. I am thinking of adding in some K-seal to fix this as I'm on a bit of a budget, thoughts on this?

Issue #2 == Now this has happened 3 times now and it has always been after the coolant level has dropped either just before I've topped it up, or just after. When I turn the key at first the engine cranks for only a second and then everything just halts, no cranking, no start motor nothing at all. I'm always able to get the car started I'm not sure which if any of the things I'm doing are helping but every time I have encountered this issue I have removed the key from the ignition, locked/unlocked the car, re-inserted the key (because I thought immobilizer possibly?) and tried starting again but this time with my foot on the clutch, the engine then starts like normal.

Any input on this will be very much appreciated
 

Deleted member 103408

Guest
Sorry not my car or engine but if you bought the car via a dealer take it back, if private have you spoken to the seller to see if they had this issue.
 

toledo19tdi

Active Member
May 21, 2018
6
0
The car was bought privately and unfortunately something tells me the seller is not going to be of much assistance since they already have lied about the car not having any faults.
 

camelspyyder

2 SEAT-er
Jun 26, 2014
1,305
175
1. Coolant leak.

Possibly just a split hose - warm it up till the thermostat cuts in and look for leaks on top/ bottom hoses/ expansion hoses and at water pump.

Or worse - Is water coming out the exhaust when running after startup? Is there white goo on the oil dipstick?
I have had partial head gasket failure that caused drop of coolant contents, and rough running on cold start.
I ignored it until the HG failed completely and the head was banana shaped so check it now!

2. No idea sorry.
 

johanbaguca

Active Member
Jul 23, 2017
27
1
Hello everyone :)

I purchased this car just over a week ago and although it drives very well and the engine pulls strongly through all gears I have noticed a couple of issues I would like to address. The Car as above is an 02 Toledo 1.9 TDI with the ASV engine.

Issue #1 == Losing a bit of coolant, every 2 -3 days the low coolant alert on the dash goes off, I top it back up and the warning light goes away until another 2-3 days. I am thinking of adding in some K-seal to fix this as I'm on a bit of a budget, thoughts on this?

Issue #2 == Now this has happened 3 times now and it has always been after the coolant level has dropped either just before I've topped it up, or just after. When I turn the key at first the engine cranks for only a second and then everything just halts, no cranking, no start motor nothing at all. I'm always able to get the car started I'm not sure which if any of the things I'm doing are helping but every time I have encountered this issue I have removed the key from the ignition, locked/unlocked the car, re-inserted the key (because I thought immobilizer possibly?) and tried starting again but this time with my foot on the clutch, the engine then starts like normal.

Any input on this will be very much appreciated

Regarding first issue it does sound like the starting symptoms of a head gasket leak, do this as a test let the car cool down overnight, in the morning open the coolant cap and fill it up to the brim, have someone turn on the engine and see if any water bubbles coming up that shows pressure leak through head gasket to cooling system,

Hopefully you catch this in time,

I had the same issue and got the head gasket replaced asap,




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toledo19tdi

Active Member
May 21, 2018
6
0
Thanks johan. I am starting to suspect HG also although there is no mayonaise on the oil cap. Sorry guys this is a bit of a long one but trying to explain whats happened the best i can.

Since starting this thread I added in some K-seal to try and fix the leak, but after, it was still leaking, i then noticed it was actually coming from a crack in the header tank at the bottom of it. So I ordered a new tank and cap, replaced that and flushed coolant system and refilled with a G13/water mix. The coolant stayed pink for about 2 days? before starting to turn brown/black. I initially thought this was just due to some residue K-seal left in the system and waasn't losing any coolant so i let it be. Since doing this Issue 2 where the car wouldn't start has vanished. But I then discovered some other issues after a 100 mile motorway run.....

- Losing power when accelerating on a slope, 4th gear at around at around 3000rpm seems only to happen when the temp gauge is at 90. Accelerating ober 60mph would take ages although do-able. So I suspected limp mode due to possibly an over boost condition caused by dodgy MAF, MAP, N75, actuator or sticky vanes etc. Decided to check for codes but I only have a basic code scanner but it reported no fault codes also there is no CEL.

So at this point I decided to do a mini service, replaced fuel and oil filters plus new seals, dropped all the old oil and added in some fresh millers trident 5w30. Car seemed to run pretty good for about 2 weeks and still no coolant loss, although i must add it was mostly short journeys at about 20 mins max but it was running well and pretty nippy.

Then we get to monday this week and I had to do another 100mile trip and when it hit 90 on the temp gauge it hit (I think?) limp mode again retstarting the engine seemed to bring back some power but i don't think all of it? However it was still quite nippy below 60 and i could here the turbo working when changing gear. However when I got back home I decided to have a look at the header tank, the level had dropped a fair bit and pressure was released when unscrewing the cap, although the engine was hot at this point. What was once my lovely fresh G13 mix had turned pure black now with oil and a horrible bit of sludge around the neck of the tank? I believe this can be caused by either HG failure or leaking oil cooler?

Anyway as the level was low and I have no choice but to keep using the car i topped it up again and added a bit more K-seal, the car then ran beautifully for 5days up until today when I had to do another 100 mile trip and the car is now performing worse than ever, even getting upto 40mph is very very sluggish and gaining speed on a gradient? Forget it. When i got home i checked the oil and its looking rather thin as though it has mixed with water, which also is being lost ow from the header tank

So if you managed to read all of that, I do apologize for how long winded it was.

So my question is.

Does this sound like oil cooler failure or HG? With today being particularly hot i wonder whether a high oil temp can produce limp mode? Or is it turbo related or these things combined? If so what would you guys recommend i do next? Personally i want to just scrap it and get a new car but finances wont let me!
 

johanbaguca

Active Member
Jul 23, 2017
27
1
Thanks johan. I am starting to suspect HG also although there is no mayonaise on the oil cap. Sorry guys this is a bit of a long one but trying to explain whats happened the best i can.

Since starting this thread I added in some K-seal to try and fix the leak, but after, it was still leaking, i then noticed it was actually coming from a crack in the header tank at the bottom of it. So I ordered a new tank and cap, replaced that and flushed coolant system and refilled with a G13/water mix. The coolant stayed pink for about 2 days? before starting to turn brown/black. I initially thought this was just due to some residue K-seal left in the system and waasn't losing any coolant so i let it be. Since doing this Issue 2 where the car wouldn't start has vanished. But I then discovered some other issues after a 100 mile motorway run.....

- Losing power when accelerating on a slope, 4th gear at around at around 3000rpm seems only to happen when the temp gauge is at 90. Accelerating ober 60mph would take ages although do-able. So I suspected limp mode due to possibly an over boost condition caused by dodgy MAF, MAP, N75, actuator or sticky vanes etc. Decided to check for codes but I only have a basic code scanner but it reported no fault codes also there is no CEL.

So at this point I decided to do a mini service, replaced fuel and oil filters plus new seals, dropped all the old oil and added in some fresh millers trident 5w30. Car seemed to run pretty good for about 2 weeks and still no coolant loss, although i must add it was mostly short journeys at about 20 mins max but it was running well and pretty nippy.

Then we get to monday this week and I had to do another 100mile trip and when it hit 90 on the temp gauge it hit (I think?) limp mode again retstarting the engine seemed to bring back some power but i don't think all of it? However it was still quite nippy below 60 and i could here the turbo working when changing gear. However when I got back home I decided to have a look at the header tank, the level had dropped a fair bit and pressure was released when unscrewing the cap, although the engine was hot at this point. What was once my lovely fresh G13 mix had turned pure black now with oil and a horrible bit of sludge around the neck of the tank? I believe this can be caused by either HG failure or leaking oil cooler?

Anyway as the level was low and I have no choice but to keep using the car i topped it up again and added a bit more K-seal, the car then ran beautifully for 5days up until today when I had to do another 100 mile trip and the car is now performing worse than ever, even getting upto 40mph is very very sluggish and gaining speed on a gradient? Forget it. When i got home i checked the oil and its looking rather thin as though it has mixed with water, which also is being lost ow from the header tank

So if you managed to read all of that, I do apologize for how long winded it was.

So my question is.

Does this sound like oil cooler failure or HG? With today being particularly hot i wonder whether a high oil temp can produce limp mode? Or is it turbo related or these things combined? If so what would you guys recommend i do next? Personally i want to just scrap it and get a new car but finances wont let me!

Hey man sorry to hear this but its probably HG failure, i used to get limp mode as well but that was from the turbo. The mixing and system pressurizing that much sounds exactly like the issues i had,

Did you have any overheating?

Not sure where you are from and how expensive it would get to replace the HG but i got it replaced for around 150€ all together and was completely worth it, it was like a new car after and performance was back,




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Deleted member 103408

Guest
Guys just so you know today the admins have added in a new feature, if you look on the left hand side under your user name is the country of you IP Address, You can make this open to all, just members or turn it off in your settings under privacy and who can section.
 

toledo19tdi

Active Member
May 21, 2018
6
0
Thats the thing mate, no overheating, no white gunk on the oil cap, and no. smoke from the exhaust. Also, the engine idles pretty smoothly too, maybe a little off in the first few mins from a cold start but still firing on all 4... Heres another thing, after todays events i let the engine cool down for a good hour, upon restart, power restored! And the power only seems to returb after the engine has cooled, restarting when hot seems to do very little. From what i have gathered if its just the ecu throwing limp mode due to an overboost, a quick restart can restore power but not the case here, its only once engine has cooled, which combined with the lack of common HG failure symptoms makes me wonder could this be caused by a faulty oil cooler thats causing oil temp to increase above an acceptable temp and trigger limp mode?
 

johanbaguca

Active Member
Jul 23, 2017
27
1
Thats the thing mate, no overheating, no white gunk on the oil cap, and no. smoke from the exhaust. Also, the engine idles pretty smoothly too, maybe a little off in the first few mins from a cold start but still firing on all 4... Heres another thing, after todays events i let the engine cool down for a good hour, upon restart, power restored! And the power only seems to returb after the engine has cooled, restarting when hot seems to do very little. From what i have gathered if its just the ecu throwing limp mode due to an overboost, a quick restart can restore power but not the case here, its only once engine has cooled, which combined with the lack of common HG failure symptoms makes me wonder could this be caused by a faulty oil cooler thats causing oil temp to increase above an acceptable temp and trigger limp mode?

Thats quite strange actually i mean i didnt get any overheating at first either but then it started to happen randomly,

It might be the oil cooling as well, ill list you some of the symptoms i had that were related to the HG failing and Turbo going so maybe you can relate some,

You can also check how pressurized you cooling system is, the pipes going out and in from the radiator let the car get up to temp and touch them, if they are rock hard then the cooling system is over pressured.

Unfortunately you might even have a combo of the both, if oil is not being cooled properly then your engine might be suffering the same and thus starting to burn the HG in small places,

If you think you can open the head yourself you might be able to fix this on your own although you will need some specific tools

-Random coolant loss (coolant would boil and added pressure pushed it from escape route on coolant tank but no oil sign on coolant. The Hg burn was very very small on cylinder 3)
-When trying to accelerate hard would go to limp mode and no power (restarting engine helped this was overboost)
-Oil burning but no big cloud of smoke
-EGR would not open properly
-Random overheating
-Rough sounding engine on all RPMs

The way the fix went was like this

-Replaced the HG car worked perfect
-Started getting siren sound
-Replaced turbo
-Replaced glow plugs
-Changing air filter every 5k km


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