Coolant reservoir draining dry on engine start

[mr mojo risin]

Ouch!(not enough ouchs)
Ouch!

Tell me about it, I've done much cursing over the last couple of days..

I see a BKD engine on ebay right now in Sydney for a grand with 124thou on it.

HERE.

I was lucky enough to pick up this bad boy this morning, $800 with 64700km. A small victory.

[Ryeman]

Well done ..... Oh yes!

[jets]

George at VW Village said it looked as though it had repeatedly overheated, badly, and in the ten years he has been working on Jetta's he has never seen anything like it and has never had to change out the whole block.

That's reassuring for the rest of us. I also have a BKD & was starting to be concerned about the possibility of future problems.
Good news about the engine you have found. Post back how it all goes.

[Ryeman]

It'd be interesting to know what servicing was done or missed to cause such a catastrophic failure.
I believe there is an attitude that if it starts, it doesn't need a service and that the sheer reliability of the modern car its its greatest weakness.
my ex's car appeared when my son (visiting fm London) drove up on a visit and he said a 'red light' kept coming up on hills.......it took 4 litres to get a 'full' reading on the dipstick ......the ex thinks if it starts - she'll be ok.
Most kids of today haven't got a clue.

[mr mojo risin]

It'd be interesting to know what servicing was done or missed to cause such a catastrophic failure.
I believe there is an attitude that if it starts, it doesn't need a service and that the sheer reliability of the modern car its its greatest weakness.
my ex's car appeared when my son (visiting fm London) drove up on a visit and he said a 'red light' kept coming up on hills.......it took 4 litres to get a 'full' reading on the dipstick ......the ex thinks if it starts - she'll be ok.
Most kids of today haven't got a clue.

I usually service every 5000-8000km's, but without a service history from the previous owner I guess it was impossible to know just how often he did his servicing. The condition was fair for the 150ish km's he had on it. He was a car guy though, and more importantly a VW guy (he had a drag-ready type 4 that he had built and another one almost complete - they were incredible), I'd like to think he also knew how to look after the Jetta. I only owned the car for one service, which wasn't even due yet - but had a bored Monday that needed a activity.

It would be great if this issue had a exact diagnosis, I'd love to know exactly what went down and why. Cars

[gldgti]

Be interested to see what the condition of the water pump was like. Perhaps the impeller has failed? Caused it to run hot a lot... Hard to say.
My bkd has 263,000 on it. It was getting a bit rough at idle. I put the new fuel temp sensor in today and its perfect.
I think the bkd is a great engine. But you get the odd failure in anything. Bad luck for the op

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[ParaBul]

Cracked block sounds quite extreme to me - my first thought goes to manufacturing defect.

If you can find convincing evidence of such, you might be able to convince VAG to make a "good will gesture" contribution to repairs.

Of course, $$$ spent looking for such evidence might never be recovered...

[mr mojo risin]

Cracked block sounds quite extreme to me - my first thought goes to manufacturing defect.

If you can find convincing evidence of such, you might be able to convince VAG to make a "good will gesture" contribution to repairs.

Of course, $$$ spent looking for such evidence might never be recovered...

This sounds interesting, any idea how to go about this?

[Ryeman]

I guess it comes down to proving the "overheating" issue was CAUSED BY or RESULTED IN ; which comes down to the issue of correct, by the book, servicing.
It comes down to proof supplied by the previous owner, remembering its way out of warranty anyway.