A3 Coolant Issues

[smudge41]

hi guys this may have been asked before just wanted some advice have a a3 1.6 and its getting rather hot under the bonnet now and i have no hot air to the heater so have checked thermostat and all is ok there

could this be the water pump not working correctly ??

thanks

 

[bengal]

Tbh it could be the waterpump but the car should be overheating if it is as in the temp should go past 90 on the guage. It could also be the head gasket so take the oil cap off if theres a creamy substance there then its water mixing with the oil also check the coolant bottle to see if theres oil mixed with the coolant you would also get white smoke coming out of the exhaust as well as coolant loss and overheating if theres none of these signs then it will be ok. Other than that you said you checked the thermostat but did you change it if not i would as they are cheap the only other thing it could be is air in the cooling system try running it with the cap off the expansion tank and hold the revs at 2k if theres air in there you will see it coming out as you do this. Sorry for the long post i just wanted to get everything down.

 

[smudge41]

i have checked under the cap all is ok there the coolant has no oil in it im not loosing coolant its just the pipes feel like its going nowhere if i squeeze them i can see it move in the expansion tank am going to try to run it without the cap on for a bit see what happenes

so can i guess the a3 doesnt have the magic valve for releasing air thats trapped

 

[bengal]

Im not sure about the bleed screw there isnt one on my 1.8t you could have a look around all the coolant pipes to see if there is one if there isnt its just the way i said. I forgot to say in the last post fill the expansion tank to the brim before trying to bleed it and squeeze the pipes as you bleed it to expel the air.

 

[smudge41]

thanks it turned out to be a bad water pump in the end saving grace was it was found when the cambelt was being done so all sorted yippee