[ayoari]

here's my sad sad story...

i have a 2004 Bug 2.0L, gracie...my first VW ever. she has roughly about 75k on her and has regular maintenance. friday afternoon on my home from work, a block away from my house, the temp light [which has never turned on] decided to say HEY I'M HOT!! so i slowly drove her to my house and popped the hood. everything looked normal so later that night when she cooled off, my bf put water and coolant in her. little did we know, he had put water and coolant in her ENGINE!!!

the next morning when i try to start her up, nothing happens. i check the engine & batt & everything looked good. i tried a couple more times and nothing. my bf was on his way to work and turned around to come check it out. he pulled the oil dip stick and realized that he had put water and coolant in the wrong place. went into a panic and called a couple of people. everyone told us to flush her out and put new oil in again. we did that and she started back up afterwards..but with a lot of white smoke. i know the smoke is from the water so that i understand.

what we did afterwards was take her to a professional to flush her out again. bad news is he told us that the head gasket had been blown out. i drove her home slowly with hardly any smoke.

my questions are the following:
- will the damn white smoke ever stop?
- wth does a blown head gasket mean? i googled it and found a number of reasons that didn't make sense.
- how much will something like this take to repair, roughly? not so much labor because my best friends bf use to work as a mechanic for VW & now works as a mechanic for audi [he is currently out of town until next month so he can't check it out for me] so i'm sure he won't tax me majorly on the labor.

i'm just trying to get a better understanding of what is going on with my car. the worse part isn't so much the gasket and the white smoke...the worse part is that i only owe $200 on the note and am paying it off next week.

no need in getting mad at my bf or the car..it's been done and there's no going back.

any advice or comments are very much appreciated!!

 

[Smileybug]

If the head gasket fails, you are likely to see coolant mix with the oil, so are you certain he put the coolant in there? Only place he could have put it like that would be the oil cap. The coolant reservoir is on the passenger side of the engine with a blue cap.

If you have a blown head gasket, stop driving the car. A "blown" head gasket means that the gasket between the head and the block has failed. This can allow for oil and coolant to mix. It can also lead to overheating problems. You can cause more damage than necessary if you drive the car like that, if the gasket really is blown.

 

[Droid]

well, a couple of questions

1. why did the head gasket "fail" (if it really did)? was it related to the overheat condition?

2. what caused the overheat condition (water pump impeller fail?)

3. did the mechanic determine the head gasket was blown BECAUSE of the water in the oil or because he did a compression test? compression testing is the real determination. i've seen head gasket crack due to overheating, but it is typically due to chronic overheating, not one time overtemps....


if the head gasket is not cracked you still have to address the cooling issue...but the fact you drove home with NO smoke is telling the head gasket isn't cracked and your mechanic my be a hack...my opinion ...get a second opinion....dont take your bug down to hack em up toms auto repair....get a GOOD vw mech who knows what they are doing and are recommended by other vw owners.

yeah, no sense in getting mad at the BF now, ti wont do ya any good. but it was a a pretty silly mistake!

never let him bleed the brakes. you may find your flower vase full of DOT-3. lol....

 

[ayoari]

Smileybug: i'm not driving the car at all. i'm too scared to mess her up any more than she already is. i only drove her once and that was once the pro checked her out. i literally live 3 min away from his shop. when we flushed out the engine..there was a lot of oil but mostly water. i know he put it in the wrong place because i was standing there AND told him that i didn't think he was putting it in the right place but hey what do i know..i'm just a girl lol thanks!

Droid:
the 'mechanic' never explained what his thoughts on the blown head gasket were. he did say that there's a chance the gasket may have been blown before the water mistake, but there's no telling. i've only been to this shop one other time with a friend who has a VW jetta and she gets all her work done there. i plan on def getting more opinions on this because i don't want anyone raping my pocket to fix my car. lol! i also don't plan on having my bf anywhere near my car ever again hahaha!! thanks.

 

[JP]

What you need is a block test kit i bought one from NAPA Auto Parts for like 40.00, what you do is you un screw your coolant tank and put this syringe looking cylinder that comes with this blue liquid and a puffer you put the blue liquid in the syringe it stays their does not enter coolant you squeeze the puffer (while car is running) and it will tell you if any exhaust gases are in the system the liquid will turn green (letting you know you have a leak), if you where in New York I'd hook you up. the part number is napa 700-1006

 

[Phil C55]

I would want to first know why you got the initial overheat. If it was because the coolant was that much too low, then where did it go? If there is no leak on the ground it may be a head gasket, one of the symptoms is overheating. You have drained out the crankcase and got oil back in it, hopefully to the correct level. You did change the oil filter too right? At this point if the coolant level in the reservoir is correct, I would start it up and let it run for a while and see if it gets hot again. You got the water out right away and so there is probably no real damage done by that and as long as you have clean oil and a fresh filter the oiling should be OK. If it has a bad head gasket, the head has to come off anyway to change the gasket and if the head is removed it has to be surfaced so you don't have much to lose at this point. The only potential problem is if it is leaking a lot of water into a cylinder you could hydraulic the motor..............then you're done, at least the motor is. The fact you drove it with very little smoke, that isn't likely.

 

[simonsi]

Few questions:

Your bf put coolant into the oil filler yes? How much?

When you say

the next morning when i try to start her up, nothing happens.

Do you mean she didn't crank or turn over on the starter? Or do you mean she cranked but wouldn't start?

What is the coolant level like right now (should be approx halfway up the round coolant bottle located in the rear left corner of the engine bay when looking at the engine from the front)?

Is the coolant level dropping while she isn't running?

 

[ayoari]

Phil C55:
my main worry is why it overheated in the first place. i'm not a maniac driver nor does my car get ignored when it comes to maintenance. the oil filter and oil were changed completely. thankfully i'm having my car checked out tomorrow and i'll find out what exactly is going then. thanks.

simonsi:
yes, he put coolant and water into the oil filler and i couldn't even tell you how much. i just know that it was A LOT because he kept having to go inside to get more water. it just seemed weird that my car would be that thirsty yanno..duh of course it's thirsty, he was putting it in the wrong place lol. when i tried it the next day everything turned on like regular only the engine wouldn't do anything. it didn't sound like my starter either because it literally sounded like she wanted to start. after like 3rd or 4th time trying, the engine jerked really bad and i stopped trying. since i'm not driving her im not sure what the coolant level is while the car is on, but the pro who flushed out the engine said he didn't think it was holding any coolant.

 

[haydende]

first off.. i'm going to admit that i LMAO..

i just know that it was A LOT because he kept having to go inside to get more water. it just seemed weird that my car would be that thirsty yanno..duh of course it's thirsty, he was putting it in the wrong place lol.

sorry ..
but i'm sure BF was trying his best.. i'm sure he feels like $0.01 right now.. so let him know that you still love him!!

ok..
Honestly .. if you were able to drive back home and not hear a ROD KNOCK, you not really in that bad of a shape.
adding water to the crankcase (as if it were oil) would certainly Kill a motor.. i'm sure after these 2 oil changes (flushes).. you are fine there .

Now, addressing the overheating. with all this Spring heat.. we should all check our coolant reservoir..

too late now to check the original level on yours, but,
Overheating maybe caused by ..
1. Loss of Coolant thru evaporation,
2. Loss of Coolant thru leakage (cracked hose/radiator,HG leakage)
3. insufficient movement of coolant thru the motor due to blockage (stuck thermostat, debris in system, plugged radiator) or water pump failure.

if overheating is severe & prolonged.. the head gasket (HG) may be damaged (blown head gasket). this is the gasket that is sandwiched in between the top(cylinder head)& bottom (block) of the motor. If the HG is damaged, it allows water/liquid from the cooling system to find its way into the combustion chambers.. and the result is white smoke (steam) out the tailpipe. continued driving with white smoke spewing out the tailpipe, will further damage (warp) the head. A head gasket job is very labor intensive, including down time to have a competent machine shop check the head. Expect to spend $350 to $700.

get your mechanic to determine what caused the car to overheat in the first place. and verify if indeed this HG is damaged.hopefully the HG is fine and you may have encountered a stuck thermostat, or maybe just have a bad water pump. Both easier to remedy than a HG.

Hope this helps a bit..

don't be shy .. ask !!