Quote:
Originally Posted by ngoma
Also-- We should not categorically rule out the possibility of a defective oil cooler, even a new one. Although the symptoms do appear to be more consistent with HG failure, as stated above.
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Good point and true. The oil in coolant could have come from there. Although oil cooler failure would not give a good explanation for the sudden overheating and cooling system overpressurization. Nonetheless, it could explain the other events too it if the cooler had in fact been failed for a while, coated the inside of the rad with oil and degraded hose condition resulting in the hose failure and that had caused the overheat episode.
The fact that the OP said the hose blew *after* the engine overheated suggests this theory would be off the mark, to my thinking at least, but then again, in the heat of the moment (no pun intended
) with many things happening at once plus trying to navigate traffic it can be hard to recall exactly afterwards what happened and how/when/what order. We all have been there. If the real sequence was that the hose blew first, or at least began to leak coolant out, then oil cooler failure could be the cause.
Oil cooler failure is not statistically common -- identical cooler used in millions upon millions of VW/Audi/etc vehicles worldwide from '70s to recent -- so we'd know if they were a trouble spot and probably a majority of those that do get replaced are wishful attempts where a head gasket problem is the real issue -- but infant mortality/DOA with new parts does happen, especially aftermarket. Headgasket failure OTOH is statistically common in engines where provoked by lack of due care paid to the preventive measures esp when combined with extreme operating conditions.
No reason to rule out the possibility though, pending further diagnostics steps, agree for sure. Sethsquatch can you remember when was the last time you had checked coolant level/appearance prior to this breakdown? Is there a possibility oil had been present in the coolant for some number of days/weeks beforehand?