Golf experts?

Fork86

Guys, what can I say? I love this forum.

Thank you all very much for your input and reassurance.

I guess maybe I was worrying too much. I was just worried that that last £1400 I spent to get it up to scratch was a waste of money if there was still something seriously wrong with it.

The car is up for it's 6 monthly service this November (to maintain the 5 year warranty on the engine), so I will ask the garage to give the engine and rad a good flush!

I still can't get my head around why VW placed plastic impellers on their waterpumps? What's even worse it they initially gave the wrong information on cambelt changing intervals... rather sneaky actually.

vaio

Plastic impeller 20p, metal impeller 50p multiply by a million cars and it adds up to £300k extra profit

Cambelts are always a bit of a lottery, Alfa started out at 72k but then they had a heap fail round about the 50k mark so they reduced the interval to 36k. I’m sure similar stories exist for all manufacturers

Fork86

vaio wrote: »

There are some VWs which have a water to oil cooler, if they corrode then you’ll get oil getting into the water so keep an eye on oil level too

If my Golf occasionally during the first few minutes of starting up momentariilly does nothing when I press the accelerator (i.e the revs go high but the car doesn;t respond for a quater/half a second) and then suddenly jerks forwards... would that indicate the the automatic gearbox needs replacing/fixing? Or could it just be the oil cooler?

Mind you, my golf has done that ever since we bought it back in 2002 at 28,000 miles, so the frequency hasn't increased, and as I said before, it only happens for the first few minutes of starting the car up.

The profit on the impellar's are quite substantial! I wonder if the amount of warranty claims bit into the profit though?

goldspanners

the temperature going up and then back down as has been said is just the thermostat opening. but another thought would be to make sure the cooling system has been bled properly and all the air is out of the system.
again,the sludge in the system needs to go, you dont want your radiator or any coolant pipes or ports blocking up,get the coolant changed and flushed asap.

as for your transmission problem, it would be worth while getting the transmission fluid changed (and filter if it has one).

vaio

The oil cooler I’m thinking about is engine oil, the slight delay you are talking about will be nothing to do with the oil cooler, maybe the gearbox oil needs topping up, maybe the gearbox needs a little adjustment or maybe it’s a characteristic of the car.

If the gearbox oil level is ok and it runs fine otherwise I’d go with doing nothing unless it starts to get worse

Fork86

Brilliant. Thanks again guys. I have made a list of things I'm going to ask the mechanic to sort out. I just hope that the servicing covers the costs of checking and changing the gearbox oil levels as well as flushing and bleeding the cooling system!

goldspanners

Fork86 wrote: »

I just hope that the servicing covers the costs of checking and changing the gearbox oil levels as well as flushing and bleeding the cooling system!

i wouldnt be too optomistic, but it shouldnt cost too much.

cyclonebri1

Just to add if the mayo was caused by a head gasket failure it can take an absolute age to clean out the system. I had a poruous head issue, (same end result), on a race car a few years ago. A new head, three or four complete changes of coolant, as many pipes removed and cleaned or replaced and there was still signs of oil in the water.

It didn't cause any problems though, although it will tend to rot the rubber hoses if left in any amount.

A friend with a similar issue put faity liquid in instead of antifreeze to flush the system. Please don't do that,

goldspanners

ive seen a lot of VW engines with the oily water mayo under the oil cap, it doesnt always mean the head gaskets blown or has done in the past. its just inherant with some VW engines,regular oil changes helps keep it at bay though.

Fork86

My biggest worry was the mayo/sludge in the coolant bottle, but now that you mention that it is quite stubborn to get rid of from previous head gasket failures, I am more at ease. I was using a paint brush every day for 3 months to clean out any of the mayo that was accessible in the bottle. It just keeps coming back after every drive. I have noticed though that is far less now, and my oil level seems to be fine.

Oh, and what is faity liquid?

Thanks again guys.