magik_89

well i recently replaced a cracked oil pan on my 98 audi a4. It was running perfectly fine until i one day i noticed that once i parked my car after a long drive it released all the coolant/water from the coolant reservoir. I refilled up the reservoir with water and drove home. Once again once i arrived home it released all the water from the reservoir. It wasn't over heating until yesterday. The fluid in the reservoir is a brownish color and my oil light on the dashboard started blinking. Which i don't understand why since i had just replaced the oil pan and put in brand new oil.Does this mean i have a bad head gasket and if so is there any tutorials or websites i can get instructions on how to do it myself.

Prospeeder

oil coolers leak coolant into the oil and oil into the coolant

magik_89

The thing that has me confused the most is the fact that i checked the oil level and it was dry and i had just put in 5 quarts of oil when i replaced the oil pan which was a week before the incident happened.

mtroxel

What does it mean when you say it "releases" the coolant from the resevoir? Do you mean it boils out the overflow that comes out the bottom of the resevoir?

magik_89

yeah it is released from the bottom of the reservoir. i havent moved the car or anything since the day it began to over heat

mtroxel

If the coolant keeps overflowing, that's starting to feel like a head gasket. Not a common problem on these cars, and I doubt there's a DIY on it. You really need to get a Bentley for that job....if you're sure that's what it is.

Prospeeder

ummm if the coolant reservoir cap fails it does that, just dumps it all out the cap and overheats because its not pressureizing the system. I would at least replace that first