Jdub07

I think my thermostate just took a dump on me. I drove home from work about an hour ago and my check engine light came on. Got home and checked the code and it was for the Thermostat or the little blue coolant sensor...I just replaced the sensor so I knew it must be the thermo putting off the code. In any case I went to pull the car into the garage and I heard a boiling sound and could smell coolant.

Under the car is a bunch of coolant and the temperature gauge shot all the way up and the warning temp light came on.

So is it safe to assume my thermo just closed up on me? Car has almost 70K with no timing belt done yet. I have the whole kit and haven't had time to get into it.

I guess the purpose of my post is to ask...could the symptoms I just explained possibly be "anything" else? I don't know a lot about the Audi so if there are other things I should look at once in there please let me know. Could this be the headgasket?? Maybe water pump too? Coolant is coming out of what looks to be the bottom of the coolant tank.

Thank you for your help guys/gals.

MikTip

you have a coolant leak somewhere?

Why? "Under the car is a bunch of coolant"

First, locate the leaks source. Then ID what & why its leaking?

Busted hose? Loose clamp? Busted tank?

A stuck thermostat wont normally cause a leak.

A busted head gasket wont normally cause an external coolant leak.

Your water pump does have 2 holes, which will leak, if the internal bushing gets worn.

quattrorally

in addition, a busted thermostat leaves the system open to the rad

Jretal

or the system was boiling over and it came out the overflow (there is an overflow on the reservoir).

If the car overheated it was either your thermostat or waterpump me thinks and the coolant coming out was just overflow from the reservoir.

If you're doing the timing belt, the thermo and waterpump need to be replaced anyway so might as well kill 2 birds w/ one stone!

Jdub07

I hope I responded properly... I have only used this board a few times so I'm sorry if I haven't got down the basics yet.

Thanks so much for the advice. You've all put my worst fear aside (headgasket)

I have the whole timing belt kit and like an idiot I put it off for two months :-(

The coolant was coming from the bottom of the overflow tank. I opened it up today and the tank is empty. I think the water pump may have taken a dump. I'm calling in sick Thursday to work on it.

Will it be safe to start the car long enough to turn it around in my driveway and pull it up on ramps? Or not start it at all and deal with where I parked it?

Again thanks for the adice.

oh yeah **EDIT** the water pump gasket that came with my timing belt kit seems pretty cheap. Is there a better gasket to buy other than this thin paper like one that I have or will this one be fine?

Jeremy

quattrorally

I would just add some water to the coolant tank so that it's not compleatly dry...what worries me is that all of it boiled out.

Good luck and let us know how she goes !

Jdub07

Why is it so woriesome<--spelling that it boiled over...what causes it to do that? I had a water pump go on my old 77 bmw and there was no boiling over just spilled all out. Maybe the resivoir was filled to high on the Audi,..I had just added coolant to the car when it happened.

I'll throw some distilled water in it when I flip it around in the driveway,...hopfully it will be alright.

I have an Alldata.com account for the Audi and have printed out all the information I could find. I also printed out the writeup I found here @ audiworld so I'm feeling pretty confident. I'll still post some photos though,..everyone like photos :-)

Thanks again
J

quattrorally

depends on how long you were running it at high temp...

these engines are pretty tough though.

Jdub07

I only ran it over heated for about 20 seconds then shut it down. Last night I put some distilled water in it to move the car into a better position and there were zero leaks and no odd noises.

So I pulled it up on ramps for the timing belt kit job. Starting it tomorrow but I don't have the lock bar. Does anyone know of a place in the Northern California Bay Area that rents these types of tools?