Ooops

I was driving my GTA to visit my mother in hospital tonight and I turned the heating on to demist the window and got cold air. I tried again after a couple of miles and it was still cold, I thought it should have heated up by then but it hadn't. Then the oil light flickered so I pulled over.
When I got out of the car I noticed steam/smoke coming out of the engine, so I opened the lid and let it cool down whilst I called for assistance.

Its too early to say whats wrong, but my first thoughts are dead water pump, boiled coolant and burnt a bit of oil... Fingers seriously crossed its nothing worse.
The car is at my mechanics but he's snowed under so prob won't get to it this week ... I'll prob have a look myself on Saturday.

Chris

Ps. Mr Dell - can you pm/email me please re: water pump (and membership) its a bit more urgent than I thought

Could just be the water pump or cooling block/airlock .But the oil light coming on will need investigating , it runs fairly high pressure at tickover .

I did notice the oil pressure was quite low when the light came on, which would make me think some had escaped ... scary thought.

I've been in touch with Mr. Dell and he's very kindly sorting me out with a water pump and I just spoke to my local dealership to order a new thermostat and switch ... How much??? and it'll be a week or so as its got to come from France

Lose of water, engine gets very hot, oil pressure drops. Bye bye engine!

Have your mechanic test the oil pressure before wasting money on bits you might not need.

Also ensure your oil is to the mark and reasonably fresh.

Good luck.

[stephendell]

new thermostat

Should be no more than a fiver.

I echo what was said above - if it got so hot the oil light came on (because the oil had thinned out) then you're almost certainly looking at least at a pair of head gaskets. Perhaps that was the reason you lost coolant in the firstplace. Good luck though.

I'm trying to look on the optimistic side for now, but head gasket was one thing I was thinking. It was still running and no odd noises when I pulled over, so I'm hoping for the best.

new thermostat

Should be no more than a fiver.

LOL, that will be the cheapest GTA fix in history if thats all it needs.

"It was still running and no odd noises when I pulled over,"

I had a similar thing happen. The temp went v.high, cloud of steam, then temp dropped back down low and no more steam. Was sitting ticking over with me scratching my head and the oil light flickering, wondering whats wrong. I then realised the coolant bottle was empty. Switched off let it cool and when I went and started to refill with coolant it poured out through a split hose down by the oil filter. The coolant system had completly emptied itself through the split !

This is identical to when my head gasget blew. Driving along , clouds of steam , no nasty noises, dead, recovery. When the gasget went it blew the bottom hose with the pressure. Richard in NI made all the repairs to a superb standard & on budget. Good luck

Well, insomnia has got me thinking about worst case - dead engine.
One thought keeps coming back ... buy a 21 turbo, use it for a winter hack then put the engine in the GTA ....
Hopefully it won't come to that, but the thought of a 21 T for a winter hack is quite appealing

Well ,if it is fecked or you want someone to look at it then give me a call
Dunno about swapping it for a 21 lump ,though it has been done .There is a decent looking Quadra with 12 months MOT on the 21toc at the moment for £700 .

... now there's a project...

a 4WD quadra based GTA.... just remember to turn the crownwheel round in the gearbox or it'll go backwards.....

Well ,if it is fecked or you want someone to look at it then give me a call
Dunno about swapping it for a 21 lump ,though it has been done .There is a decent looking Quadra with 12 months MOT on the 21toc at the moment for £700 .

What are your rates for housecalls

I did see that Quadra on 21toc as well ... I've got people coming this weekend to look at both cars I've got for sale ... So will keep it in mind if one or both of my cars go, shame its in Swansea though

Rup: I looked in to transferring the 4wd system from my old Jetta on to a Scirocco a couple of years back and that was going to a mammoth task. I think a GTA would be even worse than that ... a 4wd GTA would be nice though.

I can have a quick nose for the price of the fuel and a few Old Peculiers
That's when I get the 21 back on the road Got the bits for it now so should be done at the weekend .