Water Neck Leak at the head...

[Fishma]

I have a 1996 VW Jetta 2.0L which has a nasty leak on the driver side of the engine where the water neck meets the head. I have replaced the black ring gasket, buth that seemed to make matters worse.

During the replacement I made sure the ring was seated properly, so that cannot be the problem. I was thinking maybe I need to wrench the bolts tighter, but I am worried about stripping the threads in the engine. If anybody has had experience with this problem, please advise. Maybe there is some trick I am missing.

Thanks!

[BluesCruiser]

did you get ALL of the old gasket off scraped clean if ant is left on from the old gasket it will leak.

[Fishma]

I cleaned it well. It appears that it is leaking from all around the neck (back side, front side, bolt holes. Perhaps I need to wrench down the bolts? Is the ring a compression ring??? It is still leaking. Thanks...

[boschmann]

Those plastic flanges crack easily and must be replaced. They are cheap (even at VW) and also available from import aftermarket parts suppliers. As you stated when fitting the sensors to the new housing, make sure you replace the o-rings with new ones.