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Oil cooler or headgasket ??

2K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  garryt 
#1 ·
I have a passat 1999 1.6l .
I replenish about a liter of coolant , (0.26us gal lqd), per month.
Recently, I have also seen that there is a white film on the oil filling cap and that there is some air traped in the heater core....,(which will disappear quickly ).
The engine has 240,000 km and works perfectly and burns no oil at all, no leaks around or on the engine.
Always starts perfectly, no strange smoke from the exhaust pipe.
My mind obviously goes to a burnt cylinder head gasket or even worse a crack in the cylinder head ... my mechanic says it doesn't have to be a question about the cylinder head ,, it can be a leak in the oil cooler ,,
OK !! .... there is a possibility of only coolant to leak into the oil if it was the oil cooler that was the problem ,, but how do you explain the air in the heating core.....??? ,,, and there is no oil in the coolant ,, only coolant in oil !!

Does anyone have a clue what is going on ??
( before i start dismantle the engine :mad::mad: )
 
#8 ·
If you have a leaking cooler, oil can flow both ways. It's not prejudice.

When the engine is off and the coolant pressure is high, the coolant flow one way. When the engine is running and the oil pressure is higher than the coolant system, it flows the other way.

The cooler is cheaper to replace. If you really want to be cheap, take of off the coolant hoses at the cooler and either plug or hook them together. See what happens after that. I would not use coolant to top things up until you find out the cause of your issue. It's just a waste of money. At least in my area, water is cheaper than coolant.
 
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