QCowboy

I parked my 94 Audi 90 Quattro sedan this evening, and as I switched off the key, I was suddenly enveloped by sweet-smelling steam. Coolant poured out onto my feet on the driver-side floor.

I'm 200 miles from home, and I was planning to drive home tonight. I don't know the flow pattern for the cooling system. Can I simply take the heater hoses loose at the firewall and 1) plug them both, and put the clamps back over the hose to hold the plugs in place, or 2) place a 1/2 inch copper tube in the end of one heater hose, and connect the other hose to the other end (so that the coolant can freely flow from one hose to the other)

I realize that option 2 will get me home, but in my current situation, it will be much easier to whittle a couple plugs than to come up with a length of copper (or PVC) tube.

I guess the gist of my question is whether a flow of coolant through the heater hoses is necessary to keep the engine cool.

Help!

nate @ 034MOTORSPORT

Either option will work just fine.

20VT90q

If it literally exploded there's a chance you have a bad headgasket and it pressurized the coolant system leading to your failure. This happened to a guy on the Urs4/Urs6 forum.

QCowboy

I haven't actually crawled in to the puddle on the floor to look at the heater core, so I don't know whether any pieces came loose. I doubt it. I heard a pop, and was suddenly engulfed in steam.

It felt like an explosion of sorts! Probably just a small hole in the core, though.

QCowboy

Thanks!