Hello! My names Jack and I'm new here! not scared of spanners been doing it a while now but my expertise lies in odd areas of mechanics due to my teacher getting all the odd jobs nobody else could hack haha at the moment I'm working at a tyre retailer exhaust's/brakes/batteries/services and tyres amongst other little bits n pieces anyhow . .

I have a GTI6 with 140 on the dials and a good amount of service history mainly for belts and mot bits it was owned by a women for the past 50 thousand and I'm confident that she was not the nicest person to her car in the way of maintaining it but to be honest I knew what I was buying into with this one and I'm not scared of projects haha.

The car pulls very nicely in all gears there are no flat spots whatsoever the gearbox is smooth and the oil level/preassure are all good ive gone over it methodically ensuring all vacuum hoses are secured properly parts are greased etc etc
So I've been driving it now for around 3 weeks to work and around town with no problems whatsoever and id like to take the opportunity hear to clear myself of ragging the poor thing senseless I've had it a touch over 85mph one day as I was late for work so the engine has not been over worked whilst I've had it as I'm very cautious with high milers.

The problem lies in the cooling system. I had been driving around 30 mins at the speed limit engine running its standard temp I pull over to pick up my friend and notice my STOP light on the dash 2 seconds later the car is fogged out in steam and coolant is leaking from under the car. Ok. So I let it cool off and checked it out there was no sign of coolant anywhere other than where the overflow lies from the bottle and all hoses connecting to the rad are dry. Now this car lost ALL coolant in about 10 - 15 seconds seriously quick. So I nursed it a few miles down the road not letting it overheat and I notice that when I give it fuel it tends to bog down a bit like its flooded out or like a car running with the choke closed when cold.

I got into it this evening after work to try and fathom the problem here are my findings:

. No mixture of oil in coolant and no mixture of coolant in the head ( no mayo no white rings oil does not smell odd )
. No leaks from rad all hoses look okay
. No leaks at all
. Car temp rises as normal once at 70 - 80 starts rocketing towards the red
. Throttle response is soggy
. Heaters seem to be taking longer to warm up and do not really get anywhere near what would be called hot sort of luke warm
. OSF around the wheel arch area I can hear what sounds like a heat shield gently rattling this gets more intense through 2000 to 3500 rpm after that it goes also when coming off the revs ( I am not entirely sure wether it actually is a heat shield or wether its a screwed water pump bearing I have never had a failed pump but I can imagine the noises could be similar. I'm aware that if a seal goes on the pump the AUX belt becomes wet and squeels this does not occur )
. The coolant boils in the rad and the cap hisses slightly ( must say the rad looks to be fairly old )

Now I know it's gonna be either Pump/Rad/Thermo the one thats concerning me is the fact that my throttle response is lumpy which is leaning me in the direction of head gasket ? but no mixture in the oil ? and the fact the heaters are not getting warm. I have also checked passenger footwell for heater core fault no damp all dry and as it should be.
I am also concerned at the fact I found no leaks whatsoever but the system emptied itself in under 20 seconds very violently. My only other thought on the lumpy pickup from idle is that all the steam from the antifreeze may have wet a map or airflow sensor and screwed it ?

any help would be appreciated guys I'm loving this car after getting out of a ph1 172 much more grown up and even with a rear beam I prefer the way it corners! Ive made it a bit of a mission to revive it as the chasis is mint.

Thanks again in advance
Goat

PS some service history missing so I have no idea wether the pump has been done or not will update this if I find something out from the service history Nice1

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moonmilesmaster

Welcome and i hope you find the info you need, unfortunately we are not allowed to help you! you can either search (top right) or pay to become a member and post in the right section

see here http://www.306gti6.com/forum/showthread.php?id=142633 not just me being a dick

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mcfc1987 I see sorry my friend I will have ti pay up and post properly cheers

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moonmilesmaster

thanks man appreciated I think for a tenner you cant really go wrong !

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moonmilesmaster