Thread: 300TDI

Hi and Welcome John.

It happened to me at about 50,000km .... 110,000 km and 7 years ago.

Rebuilt the motor as I didn't catch it in time....would have done if I had had a low level coolant alarm.

All that I have heard is that some heads weren't torqued down properly.

What were the circumstances and symptoms of the failure?

head gasket issues are normally caused by low coolant, engines overheat easily (only low 1 ltr) and doesn't show on factory gauge very well
head gaskets blow weeks-months- yrs later and if not causght casue big greif
TDI heads are hardend alum (anodized coating) and should NOT be machined (sorry to be the bearer of bad new but your will fail agian if machiend) new haeds are bloody expensive try $1500+ bare (no valves) or $2000 with valves
not trying to sound like spam but I have one head c/with valves in stock
Jase

Thanks for the replies guys.
It seemed that my coolant tank had split, however, there was no sign of overheating on the gauge. I was told that the tanks are prone to splitting, so Alan actually fitted a new tank before he set off on a long drive. Did;nt help him though!!!

Originally posted by stingrayau
Thanks for the replies guys.
It seemed that my coolant tank had split, however, there was no sign of overheating on the gauge. I was told that the tanks are prone to splitting, so Alan actually fitted a new tank before he set off on a long drive. Did;nt help him though!!!

Ahhh... Yep. You're going to need coolant in the system for the sender to register a temperature. :? I've not heard of the header tanks being prone to splitting before though.

Mark.

Originally posted by camel_landy
I've not heard of the header tanks being prone to splitting before though.

Mark.

Hi Mark,

Not unusual here....must be an Aussie conditions thing :wink:

They can split at the seam.

The replacement is a white plastic job.

But I do wonder what is the cause and what is the symptom...does the overheating cause the tank to split?

Originally posted by one_iota+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(one_iota)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-camel_landy
I've not heard of the header tanks being prone to splitting before though.

Mark.

Hi Mark,

Not unusual here....must be an Aussie conditions thing :wink:

They can split at the seam.

The replacement is a white plastic job.

But I do wonder what is the cause and what is the symptom...does the overheating cause the tank to split?[/b][/quote]

Hmm... Interesting. If anything, I would think that it could be a pressure build up rather than temperature - blown head gaskets are good for that. (When the head gasket went on one of my Range Rovers, it took out the radiator AND the fecking heater matrix!!!)

The only other thought is that they had a faulty batch of tanks which got fitted to Oz spec vehicles?? :?

Mark.

It seems to 'black tank=crap, white tank=OK' regardless of the vintage.
It also seems to be a known issue.
I replaced my tank as it started to crack just below the seam, but hadn't lost any coolant. That was over twelve months ago now. Also fitted a mechanical temp guage around the same time, and no temp problems evident.

Had the same issue with a 1996 TDi Disco. Lost coolant from a leaking welch (sp?) plug on the side of the block. Not enough to pool on the driveway or anything, just continual slow loss that must have burnt off. No temperature gauge warning either.

Head gasket was gone - you could see bubbles coming back from the coolant expansion tank. Think the head was machined, so am not happy to read Jase's comments that they shouldn't be machines and will fail again.