Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all,

I have recently purchased a 1.9 watercooled and am having a few problems.

I seem to be losing water. The first thing I noticed was one of the head bolts was loose and was leaking water. I tightened this up and can now only see water dripping from the corners of the bottom of the engine.

A chap from volkswagen came down and said it would be an engine rebuild or a recon! I don't for obvious reasons want to rush into this so any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

The head bolts on this particular engine are prone to corroding my friend if the wrong coolant is used over a long period. I hope Im wrong, but from what you say, it certainly sounds like your head bolts.

I have tightened the bolt and it is not leaking from there anymore!!

Clean/dry as best you can the engine block, and surrounding areas, and see if you can trace where its leaking from?

Its definately not from the bolts, I can't see where but sure its from the bottom of engine.

You need to try and trace where its coming from exactly, bottom of the engine could also mean its leaking higher up, and simply running down naturally so it looks like the bottom area.

Is it leaking when cold, or only when the engine is warm/hot, and cooling system pressurised?

I have a water leak too, and managed to locate my leak to the metal cooling system pipe to the left of the engine as you look at it. I do hope for your sake its something easy to fix like mine, otherwise until you actually locate the actual spot its leaking from its going to be difficult to diagnose.

Thanks for this! It leaks cold!