[Tracy823]

Hello, I'm new here so I hope I have posted in the right forum/thread. Just bought this car for my daughter around 2 months ago. We were out in the car yesterday and all was fine as far as we knew. We went through a drive thru which took a while and I noticed the a/c wasn't blowing cold air. When we pulled out of restaurant parking lot on to the road, a/c still plowing hot air and the engine wouldn't shift out of first gear (automatic transmission). I had my daughter pull over. That's when the warning light came on that looks like a thermometer in water. it flashed a few times with a warning bell and went off, saw some steam coming from hood. We turned off the car immediately. All the antifreeze had gushed out of the car. It seems to be coming from the back of the motor and ran out the right side at back of tire. There was a slight decline in the shoulder of the road so that may be why it ran in that direction but we aren't sure. After filling the car up with water to try and drive it to a safe spot to load it on a trailer, it ran just fine (gear wise) that short distance of course until the water ran out again immediately. We have some experience with the 68' and 78' bugs but not these new ones and REALLY can't afford a trip to a VW dealer. Gonna get up under it today but if anyone has any ideas, tips or hopefully you know what this is, please help. Thank you! What's sad is that we just put the permanent tags on it before we took it out yesterday.

 

[Tracy823]

oh no!

Thanks for the replies but I'm not liking what I'm hearing. I'm located on the boarder of east Tennessee/southwest Virginia. Near Bristol Motor Speedway if that helps. It has 150k on it and we have NO idea what work has been done on it before. I wrote the original owner and asked but have no reply. We would love to do the work ourselves but from what I'm hearing on the timing belt, it takes a experienced VW mechanic to get the timing correct. So you are saying if we have to replace the water pump that the timing belt will probably be snapped? Do you not think the transmission problem was due to the coolant issue going on at that moment?

 

[Tracy823]

I do appreciate all the help. Am I understanding correctly that you are saying that the timing belt has most likely broke because of this coolant problem? I do understand that we need to change that belt and we're planning on that asap. We know the implications of timing belt breaking and the destruction of the engine. I'm just making sure I understand what you are saying. We are hoping it's just a hose and easily fixed. Water pump wouldn't even be too bad. Are you suggesting that it has happened?

 

[Tracy823]

oh ok. No it was still running. We won't be running it any until this problem is fixed. Thank you guys and please post anything else any of you can think of. I will let you know what it was for future posters.

 

[Tracy823]

Update

Ok. We found a radiator hose with a leak. Replaced it and filled system up with fluid etc. Also found another hose busted at back of engine and replaced it. Started car for testing of overheating. Turned on A/C full blast. Worked great. Car sputtered a few seconds but ran smoothly after that. Thermostat never opened up. Then after about 10 minutes of car idling, the coupling at the same hose I replaced, came apart from hose. Turned off the car. After inspecting the part that failed, it was really deteriorated. Trying to figure out if we had air in the system which cause this coupling to come apart or if there are just a lot of bad hoses and parts that are failing at same time from the pressure. Also, would air in the system cause thermostat not open? Any suggestions? Please help.

 

[Tracy823]

one more thing. The fan on the drivers side is not working. We have never seen it work that is. Could this be causing more pressure or overheating?

 

[Tracy823]

yes! The heart valve intersection of hoses. I do understand that it's old but what I'm wondering is if there could be an underlying problem that's causing more pressure than usual and it's find the week spots. Any ideas? Could it be the fan?
thermostat etc?

 

[Tracy823]

ok well we decided to go ahead and replace thermostat also. I hope it's not a huge pain as you say. It's aggravating as it is that another part blew apart. I wondering if it's where we didn't bleed the system before starting and cause the pressure I was mentioning. so now we will replace "heart" valve at radiator and thermostat and see if anything else blows apart. lol. Oh and we have to figure out why one of the engine cooling fans isn't working. Thanks for the help. I'll post again with update.

 

[Tracy823]

But could that one fan not working cause overheating?

 

[Tracy823]

Update

Finally got our 2000 1.8 liter turbo beetle in the shop after replacing several hoses that kept blowing after idling a few minutes. Water pump was bad. Timing belt changed. mechanic said " it was off a couple T's" ?? What's that mean? He said its idling rough. We weren't experiencing that before. We did notice that there wasn't any power when driving up on trailer to take to mechanic. Now I'm worried there's a bigger issue or this guy has messed something up. We should know what they find tomorrow or Monday. Any thoughts?

 

[Tracy823]

We've been assured that this guy knows what hes doing and he does several vw's a week. As for what the place told us about the "t's " , he meant teeth. As in a " couple of teeth we're out" on the old belt. I asked if that would cause any major damage to the engine and he said no. It's running a little rough since its sat a while. Il hoping that's the Only reason. Weak power when pushing gas. Just started it to put it trailer to take it to shop. Before that, it ran fine. I'm worried something has messed up on motor since it overheated. We turned motor off as soon as we realized it was overheating that day. Only started while working on things and hasn't been driven since. The guy at shop is checking on why it's running rough now. They also found a small leak in radiator too.,ugh. I'm hoping this wasn't a $4000 mistake buying this bug. I hope you guys can give me some insight on what could be going on, what to expect and what to ask or accept from mechanic. Thanks

 

[Tracy823]

Well now I'm bummed out. Indy Tom, I hope what your telling me hasn't happened. I knew that timing belt failure could cause engine damage. I don't see how it could have bent a valve with it running as little as it has. Mechanic just called to see what we had done to car so he'd know how deep to look for cause of it running rough now. He'd already changed water pump and timing belt. This car has sat about 3 months so hopefully the rough idling is from that. I was really hoping for some less worry some scenarios of the rough idling. If you have any, please share. I don't know if this guy is or has done a "compression" test on it. Not sure if I should be telling him what I think he should do since he's the mechanic. Some don't like that. Should I? Also, if head is blown, valve or piston damaged, what kind of cost am I looking at? "crossing fingers and ties"

 

[Tracy823]

Any ideas, suggestions etc? Waiting on mechanic to call back is rough