Woodchuck,
On another post you mentioned that the MK IV has a very good reputation with
head gaskets.
Do you think in this case below that it was a water pump not the gasket?
I hate these new 'stretch' style head bolts and usually replace them with
'raceware' studs.
Would like to hear your opinion on this and head gaskets in general and
anything that the
user can do to keep them from leaking.
thanks


--
David

nosmo86(At)hotmail(Dot)com


"Woodchuck" > wrote in message
...
>I bet if you replaced the water pump first then rechecked you wouldn't have
>needed a headgasket. Unless you continued to drive the car after the no
>heat/overheat issue started. If you were the first owner then it would have
>all been covered under warranty!
>
>
> > wrote in message
> ups.com...
>>I drive a '00 Jetta.
>> On my drive home from work one cold February night, I looked at the
>> dash to learn the coolant was overheating. Many people would think the
>> temperature gauge translates to the engine overheating, but that's not
>> neccessarily the case. I cranked the heat inside the car to hopefully
>> remedy the situation, only to find cold air coming from the vents.
>> Now I'm no mechanic, but I know how to handle a wrench, and hoping it
>> was the cheapest (and easiest) thing that could possibly be causing the
>> problem....thermostat. Took out the thermostat out of the car and
>> submerged it in a pot of hot water..this works just fine (water boils
>> 212 F). My thermostat is supposed to open in the neighborhood of 180
>> (it'll say right on it) and it was fully open before the water was to a
>> boil, so I was confident that wasn't the problem. My wallet began to
>> whimper.
>> I can't drive my kid around in the cold, so I'm forced to immediately
>> take it to a shop.
>> Told them my story...they vacuumed out the entire cooling system and
>> filled it to the brim so there were to air pockets. They drove it for
>> about 10 minutes...had heat in the car for about 5. Same symptoms came
>> back. Let it cool back at the shop...discover air pockets have formed
>> and the only explanation is that combustion gas (when and where the
>> gasoline is actually ignited and the explosions occur) which,
>> infortunately means the head gasket has failed (or blown, as it's
>> known). <--hey that rhymes!!
>> In replacing that, I had the water pump replaced as well. My car's got
>> 98,000 miles, so it's probably a good idea to do it now.
>> Timing belt was also stretched out pretty good, so they replaced that
>> as well.
>> TOTAL BILL : little over a grand
>> I'm not complaining - this car has ran great the entire time I've had
>> it and these repairs had to be expected once you're knocking on 100K
>> miles.
>> Car idles and drives even smoother now, don't have the breathing noise
>> that it had before the repairs.
>>
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