Coolant Usage - Oh My God!!!

wilko

wilko

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Driving to work this morning :racer: and the coolant warning message came up on my DIS. Beeping about 8 times, etc, etc... But then disappeared. And then a mile or two down the road came back on.

On arriving at work I checked it, and the level has gone down past the Minimum mark, probably by an inch.

Now I checked this about 2 weeks ago. I have never had any problems with collant usage being high before now (March 2005 05 plate). Has anyone else experienced this? Good job DIS is working I probably wouldn't have checked it until the weekend (sunday)!!

I don't understand why it would use more coolant in the winter than in summer - unless i have a problem and it's kicked it out of the overflow. There were no warning lights or message on the drive home yesterday so it must have been this morning, or it just didn't notice last night. Strange! :shrug:

Any ideas guys???? :uhm:
 
It's a closed system so shouldn't loose any. You've a TDI so shouldn't run too hot to boil - epecially in winter.

My old Leon 110TDI had a coolant leak I never solved - would suddenly go from max to min. Always beeped in the morning. Was pressure tested at dealer and was fine.

Most important check your oil for contamination! Anyway it's probably just a loose hose clip.
 
I hope it isn't the head, it's only done 23K!

Gonna go out at lunch and have a quick check and top up the water - should have cooled down by now. Worrying tho!
 
audi upgrades
Get the system pressure tested at a dealer soon.

Chris.
 
High coolant consumption (and/or high oil consumption) have been mentioned on here before,in connection with the tdi.
I could be wrong,but I think porous cylinder heads were mentioned as a cause of the high coolant use ?
Do a search on this forum under 'coolant'.
 
Just have done - thanks mate. I'm not happy with what I have just read! Awaiting call back from the dealer.:ermm: :sob:
 
A number of us have\are experiencing this.

Mine has only done 7k miles and the coolant is already on the min, no obvious sign of leaks. It seems to have been dropping gradually and is in next month for a service so I'll get it checked out then. I found the G12 Plus coolant was not available at Halfords so had to get it from from local Audi dealer.

Check out these threads too:

http://www.tyresmoke.net/ubbthreads...25,26,27,3/Number/1032731/an/0/page/4#1032731

http://www.tyresmoke.net/ubbthreads...rds=EGR+Markpaq&topic=&Search=true#Post995495

Keep us informed mate as a number of us are in a similar situation.

Never had a car that uses coolant before!
 
As I posted before, when mine started doing this it turned out to be a cracked cylinder head which was replaced under warranty. Take it to a dealer now.
 
Just heard back from the Dealer and I have a sit and wait style booking for next Thursday. So it can't be that serious or surely they'd have booked me in sooner?! But all there gonna do is pressure test it and as he said "order any bits that might be required". Sounds like I'll be sat in the dealer eyeing up the S3 quite a bit over the next few weeks!!:3sadwalk:
 
i never lost a drop in my 04 TDI - never even had to unscrew the coolant lid once while i owned it so defo something wrong - as someone said its a sealed system. I certain amount of leakage is acceptable in an old car as all the hose connections wear with time and may leak slightly and if only slightly isn't really a major problem as long as you keep it topped up - but on a new car there should be absolutely no fluctuation.

Interesting to note that even if you hadn't topped it up it prob won't have done any harm straight away in a TDI as they are so efficient they don't lose as much energy as heat as a petrol. I'm sure i read somewhere that if you started a diesel from cold and just left it idling it wouldn't actually get up to 'official' operating temperature thats how efficient they are.
 
Seems that the fan mouts on the radiator have been rubbing on the radiator and have made a hole which is where the water was coming from.

Ended up ringing Audi Assist, and yet again the guy was great found the problem in about 5 minutes and sorted me out with a courtesy car and the pickup and drop off mof my car to and from the dealers (even tho he slagged off my dealer big style and recomended me to go somewhere else next time - which I have taken on board).

Spoke to my dealer who said when they get the car it "should" take 48 hours to sort out depending if they have the parts. And then said it'll probably be Thursday when I get it back (Mmmm 48 hours - Monday to Thursday??!?!?! is it just me or does that not add up?!).:think:

SO until then I have to put up with a Vectra 1.8 SRi - oh the joy! I miss my TDI touque already! :(
 
Well at least you know it is being sorted. Cant get the service nowadays.
 
a vauxhall courtesy car? how does that work? not a very good advert for the dealership...
 
The car was from Audi Assist - they rang me and said they didn't have any Audi's available - so it had to come from National Cars (Group D). I was gutted, I was hoping for a new TT or something nice!! No such luck!
 
Well lets not hope so hey. I haven't got it back yet - I guess only time will tell if it's done any damage.
 
Any chance of you asking them when you pick it up whether this is a known issue please?

Seems to be a few of us losing coolant - is it a manufacturing misalignment?
 
The guy from Audi Assist said it looked like a design fault - but said he'd never seen or heard or it before - I'll ask mate of course.

121900.png


If you can see where the fugure 4 is below the large fan, this is where mine was leaking from. You have to take off the air intake from the front of the car and then look down between the fan and under a little pressure you could just see :search: the water pulsing out of the radiator.

Not a very good design tho, cos it's not like I hit anything to force or make the fan sit closer to the radiator.

Keep you posted on any progress.
 
Finally got my car back from the dealers this morning and boy does it feel good to be driving a real car again. Got to work and thought I'd have a look under the bonnet to see if I could tell they'd actually done anything and the coolant level was below Min. Rang the dealer who said "Oh... could you drop it off later today so we can have a look?" Again! Might just top it up and keep an eye on it. Fcuking dealers and monkey machanics who don't know what there doing - does my head in. Good job they didn't give me a bill this morning or I'd have propper kicked off.

Said I'd stop off on my way to work in the morning this'll give me chance to see if the level moves and then I'll go off on one if it has.

And by-the-way this is not a common problem - apparently! Not that I trust my dealer at all to be completely honest at the minute. They did clean the car though - should save me freezing my balls off this weekend!
 
So either they have done nothing, or they've made the problem worse, or you have 2 leaks or they have fixed it but not refilled the bottle!

Quality - keep us informed.
 
I suspect when it was filled there was an air pocket, which moved when you started to drive the car. It's common when re-filling the cooling systems, but normaly spotted during testing.

Chris.
 
They have said they did bleed the system to make sure it was ok and pressure tested when the change was complete. Topped it up at lunch and took it for a run. And it seems ok at the minute. Gonna keep a very close eye on it. If i'm not happy they can have it back until it's 100% right.
 
It seems that it must have been an air pocket or just not topped up enough as after filling it yesterday it hasn't gone down again. Few...

Looks like I'll have to take back all those nasty things I said about the dealer! Mmmmm maybe next time!!
 
wilko said:
It seems that it must have been an air pocket or just not topped up enough as after filling it yesterday it hasn't gone down again. Few...

Looks like I'll have to take back all those nasty things I said about the dealer! Mmmmm maybe next time!!
Click to expand...

Why should you, the coolant system is a closed one and the average person would just see a coolant light reappearing on the dash causing you you to buy coolant and top up and then arrange another visit. IMHO they should have road tested it, let the car cool down then give you the keys back when they know its sorted. Like I say is my opion but maybe Audi customers are supposed to complete their job for them as a kind of teamwork thing ;) Very soon Audi customers will be servicing/repairing their own cars and then just paying 260 pound for the Audi stamp.
 
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