Determining Head Gasket Hole Size on your TDI

The only way to find out which head gasket your car needs is to look at the one on your car.  Finding out which one you need is really fast and easy if you know what to look for.

When replacing a head gasket on any motor it is vital to know the thickness of the head gasket on the car. Even though engines are made to exacting measurements, small variations can add up. To deal with the variation in block height, piston and bearing size there are are different thickness head gaskets. It is often impossible to know which head gasket you need based on the model year or VIN since the judgement was often made on the spot during the engine build.

Its easy to find your head gasket thickness. The thickness of the gasket is denoted by “holes”, e.g “1 Hole”, “2 Hole” or “3 Hole” thickness. The holes are physical, circular holes that are stamped into a small tab on the gasket. Follow the break to find the head gasket size on your TDI.

Step one is get to the front of your vehicle.

2002 Jetta TDI Front

Step two, open the hood…

TDI ALH Engine Cover

Remove the engine cover. On many models this requires a 10mm socket ro remove three 10mm nuts. They are located under the circular plastic caps in a triangle shape, they are visible in the above photo.

TDI Engine

With the engine cover off we are going to look between the injection pump and the engine, the area indicated by the Green square. Some model TDIs don’t have an injection pump, so there won’t be anything in front of the engine blocking your view.

Head Gasket Size Tab

Thats the straight above view. You can make out the tab, though its a bit dirty.

Head Gasket Size Close Up

The important holes are the circular ones, in this case this tab has 2 circular holes, making it a “2-hole” head gasket. The elongated hole all the way to the left does not count.

Importantly, there are only three sizes – 1, 2, or 3 hole. If you find a tab that doesn’t have a hole, or has 4 holes, you aren’t looking at the right thing. Remember, the elongated hole DOES NOT COUNT.

Here are some common TDI head gasket part numbers:

Vehicle Size OEM Part Number
AHU/1Z Head Gaskets – MkIII Jetta TDI & B4 Passat TDI 1 Hole 028103383BP
2 Hole 028103383BQ
3 Hole 028103383BR
ALH Head Gaskets –
MkVI Jetta TDI  ‘99-’03
MkIV Golf TDI ‘99-’03
New Beetle TDI ‘98-’03
1 Hole 038103383H
2 Hole 038103383J
3 Hole 038103383K
BEW Head Gaskets –
MkIV Jetta TDI ’04-’05
MkIV Golf TDI ’04-’06
New Beetle TDI ’04-’06
1 Hole 038103383DE
2 Hole 038103383DF
3 Hole 038103383DG
BRM Head Gaskets –
MkV Jetta TDI ’05-’06, 2009-2010
(same as BEW above)
1 Hole 038103383DE
2 Hole 038103383DF
3 Hole 038103383DG
Sportwagen 2009-2014 CBEA/CJAA,

Golf CJAA 2010-2014,

Jetta CJAA Mk VI 2011-2014

1 Hole

2 Hole

3 Hole

03L103383AQ

03L103383AR

03L103383AS

NMS Passat CKRA (before 6/30/2011) 1 Hole 03L103383AJ
2 Hole 03L103383AK
3 Hole 03L103383AL
NMS Passat CKRA (after 6/30/2011) 1 Hole 03L103383BM
2 Hole 03L103383BN
3 Hole 03L103383BP
  1. thank you so much for making this an easy answer. I searched online and all these forms talk about getting out your measurement tool and all this other crap. Reverse engineering the entire installation process to find out the correct notch. Unbelievable how easy you made this for me thank you … I plan on spending a few thousand dollars now

    Reply

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