• Coolant leaks out of the engine, by squeezing under the fat rubber head gasket on the head side. The gasket is flat, no groove or lips, so the path is easy for the coolant to get through. Coolant creeps under the gasket edge from day 1 in a new engine, due to water pressure and the use of a soft gasket material. The coolant becomes trapped under the gasket, and creates local corrosion pockets. This is known as 'crevice corrosion' and is due to bad engineering at VAG. Once the aluminium head starts to corrode in the pockets the 'rust' puffs up a bit alllowing more coolant seepage deeper under the gasket. The process continues until it reaches the outside, whence it starts dripping. The hardening of the rubber with age, and the repeated expansion/contraction of the water jackets aggravate this problem as the van ages. The only fix if leaking is new gaskets and perhaps new heads. Small leaks/drips may respond to BarsLeak. This is one type of head leak, and is definately fatal. This problem may suddenly appear in late fall as colder overnight temps. are encountered, causing the water jackets to contract enough to leak out the weakened gaskets seal. Look for drops of coolant under the van. • The second type of head gasket leak is coolant over the top of the internal cylinder barrels, past an O-ring and large thin metal gasket. This allows coolant into barrels, giving some white smoke/missing on startup, but more importantly loosing coolant and letting combustion gasses into the coolant circuit. This is usually noticed when the overflow tank suddenly fills up with a hot engine, and draws back in while cooling. This leak is less common than the first, and gives longer warning time. It can sometimes be fixed by retorquing down the heads. • A small head gasket leak is no big deal other than you have to add coolant occasionally. Obviously it is a bother and eventually you will want to get it repaired. Usually new heads are installed and AMC heads are the best commonly used.