2.0 TDi Mystery Coolant Loss

Mindak

Mindak

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I know its been covered lots of times before but im running out of things to try before I give up on this!
Just want to evaluate my attempts and findings so far...

I have been suffering with coolant loss since August last year (7 months ish), with no visible traces in the bay, passed head gasket sniff test, pressure tested fine and found no traces after running dye in coolant for around a month!

Iv had the egr valve deleted but cooler is still present, and don't think im suffering from any great power loss that I can tell!

I think I may be suffering with smoking around 5 mins after start up (hard to tell with the outside conditions this time of year!)

Its been to Audi main dealer for 2 days with no clues and 4 independent garages with no definite conclusion as to what it could be...

Last off all its a 2007 with a C cylinder head!

Any ideas are very welcome....
 
Porous head or the EGR cooler is leaking?

The EGR cooler is pretty easy to spot with the car on a ramp, and it's easy to delete it too so maybe start there?
 
Don't think we could see any obvious moisture around the cooler, its now redundant so may try getting that out as it wont cost much!
is it not the early ones that became porous?
 
I thought the head issues had been resolved by revision c too. I to thought it was the earlier heads that were such a pain.
 
My understanding is that the rev C head was miles better than the previous ones, but can still cause issues. That is based purely on internet/google reading though not experience so I can't say 100% sure, sorry :)
 
Have you checked if radiator is leaking? Do you also get a thick amount of white smoke when your car starts?
 
It's been pressure tested by Audi overnight with no loss and no visual leaks so don't think so.. It doesn't smoke straight away seems like 1/2mins of running then clears after about 5mins

Think I might delete the egr cooler next
 
Mindak said:
It's been pressure tested by Audi overnight with no loss and no visual leaks so don't think so.. It doesn't smoke straight away seems like 1/2mins of running then clears after about 5mins

Think I might delete the egr cooler next
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Hmm that is strange. Mine used to lose coolant quickly with poor starts followed by alot of white thick smoke. Since I used K-seal the white thick smoke is no longer and no more poor starts. Not sure if K seal sealed a leak in Radiator or head.
 
Qasim91 said:
Hmm that is strange. Mine used to lose coolant quickly with poor starts followed by alot of white thick smoke. Since I used K-seal the white thick smoke is no longer and no more poor starts. Not sure if K seal sealed a leak in Radiator or head.
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How long ago did you put that it, that would be my last resort! Lol
 
Mindak said:
How long ago did you put that it, that would be my last resort! Lol
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Put it in 2 month ago suffered no coolnt loss around 5 weeks but recently started
Losing water at a slower rate than before so put another dose of kseal last week, will see how long it lasts this time. I noticed dried brown stuff around the radiator side so im assuming my radiator was leaking.
 
Tonight I removed my egr cooler as its not doing anything due to having egr delete! So fingers crossed this could have been the issue if not looks like it's going to be cylinder head related!
 
Small update.... Still losing coolant.... God knows what to try next!
 
Unfortunately seems like it must be the head then...where else can it go?
 
I was hoping it would be leaking and evaporating but it's looking unlikely now I'm losing around 800ml a week!
 
Not on that VAG have got away with not acknowledging being at fault really. Mind you, revising the head surely counts as them admitting there is a problem?
 
Last edited:
jb93 said:
Not on that VAG have got away with not acknowledging being at fault really. Mind you, revising the head surely counts as them admitting there is a problem?
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Yea exactly, although mine has a revised C Prefix head! lol
 
Mindak said:
I was hoping it would be leaking and evaporating but it's looking unlikely now I'm losing around 800ml a week!
Click to expand...

Sorry to say 800ml in a week isn't evaporation from a leak... Have you had a chat with Nigel about this? He is pretty handy so may know something...

jb93 said:
Not on that VAG have got away with not acknowledging being at fault really. Mind you, revising the head surely counts as them admitting there is a problem?
Click to expand...

True but they can make any number of reasons up for revising the head...doesn't have to be coolant issues.
 
Had another stiff test carried out yesterday and is now showing signs of head gasket... Also signs of coolant on the oil cap so looks like il be getting quotes today!
 
I'm having a similar problem with mine although I have a 2010 S3. Coolant is slowly but surely going down and I can't find where it could be leaking from. Can anyone help?
 
Same issue here for me, mine is a 2011 2.0 TDi (170).

It's going in for the first time to Audi on Monday, I have an extended warranty so my only worry is that they won't find anything but still want to charge me.

I'm losing circa 500ml every 6 weeks.
 
I had the same problem, it turned out that there was a tiny crack under the coolant reservoir tank and it leaked onto a hot pipe directly under and evaporated, it stopped once I replaced the coolant reservoir tank.
 
Turns out mine is now showing traces of coolant on the underside of oil cap and now testing positive via a sniff test so have it booked in for two weeks time to have the head gasket replaced.. hopefully they find nothing wrong with the head while they're at it!
 
I had mine looked at yesterday, turned out to be the water pump, done under Audi extended warranty. Although I had to pay for the cambelt kit because apparently the warranty won't cover it, even though they had to remove the old cambelt to fit the pump. They said it's because they can refit the old belt, so strictly speaking it doesn't need doing, although they do "advise" it.

Total cost to me £250...

I'm going to check with Audi warranty today, I'm sure I know what they'll say! Worst case is that I've had the belt and pump replaced for about half the cost I'd have incurred anyway.
 
Had the same on my Audi A3 2010 TDI.

The Check coolant level warning kept coming up from time to time and I had to refill the ******* every now and then and I tried to find if it was leaking somewhere but it wasnt visible anywhere - should have been as it was loads disappearing sometimes after a drive. Because of the plastic shield underneath the car it wasnt visible though and also checked several times at this garage.

One day I was driving, having had the coolant tank filled up to the recommended level and suddenly the warning came up and the car started to overheat but luckily enough I was on a big road and could stop the car quickly and pull over. Loads of coolant water came flooding from under the car and the water pump had finally broke so I had to get a towing truck to the closest VW garage where they replaced it and also the timing belt at the same time - which thankfully got paid via the Insurance, I was just a few miles below the Insurance mileage level so somewhat of a good timing anyway to break down.

The mechanic said the water pump had been somewhat pushed to the side and leaked a small amount over some time until it finally broke off and collapsed.
 
Just collected my car from having the head gasket replaced turns out it was well and truly blown so fingers crossed this will be the end of it!
 
im_izzy said:
I'm happy for you, fingers crossed that's the end of it. Hope it didn't break the bank too much
Click to expand...

My wallet wasn't exactly pleased but not as much as I was dreading!

Also had my R32 front brakes fitted and HEL braided brake hoses all round while it was there!
 
Unfortunately I'm still losing coolant so looks like the head must be shot... Not much more it can be! Very tempted to just try a bottle of k-seal and hope for the best! Costing far too much money now and getting pretty peed off with it!
 
That is a real shame, do you think the head was flexing a bit, damaging the head gasket? All that boost yo! (Sorry, you have to smile about something I guess). The last time I checked it was around £600 for a new cylinder head.
 
Mindak said:
Unfortunately I'm still losing coolant so looks like the head must be shot... Not much more it can be! Very tempted to just try a bottle of k-seal and hope for the best! Costing far too much money now and getting pretty peed off with it!
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have a look directly under your coolant reservoir tank to see if its leaking. Mine was leaking on to a hot pipe and evaporated, how much coolant are you losing?
 
killa kombo said:
have a look directly under your coolant reservoir tank to see if its leaking. Mine was leaking on to a hot pipe and evaporated, how much coolant are you losing?
Click to expand...

Well head gasket was done nearly 2 weeks ago and last week it used over a litre!
 
A decent garage would have been able to tell you if the head were knackered when they did the head gasket for you surely!?!
Also if a garage didn't know what the fault were surely any trial and error should start from the cheapest parts first.
I once had a golf and it would only randomly lose coolant, I took it to a few garages and nearly everyone said it was most likely the head gasket but another garage said its just a case of trying a few things and start with the cheapest first so he started with the thermostat. This solved the problem and cost me £20 the bloke said the thermostat wouldn't have been opening when it should have so it would have been pushing the coolant back out. A lot cheaper than a new head/gasket.
 
ab1702 said:
A decent garage would have been able to tell you if the head were knackered when they did the head gasket for you surely!?!
Also if a garage didn't know what the fault were surely any trial and error should start from the cheapest parts first.
I once had a golf and it would only randomly lose coolant, I took it to a few garages and nearly everyone said it was most likely the head gasket but another garage said its just a case of trying a few things and start with the cheapest first so he started with the thermostat. This solved the problem and cost me £20 the bloke said the thermostat wouldn't have been opening when it should have so it would have been pushing the coolant back out. A lot cheaper than a new head/gasket.
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Iv been trying different things for almost 10 months so this was one of the last things I wanted to try... There was no visual cracks apparently so I'm guessing porous! It went to an Audi/vw specialist not a backstreet garage! Just given up on it now!
 
what about the simple things like the coolant cap ? has a pressure relief valve in it might just need a new cap .
 
Mindak said:
Iv been trying different things for almost 10 months so this was one of the last things I wanted to try... There was no visual cracks apparently so I'm guessing porous! It went to an Audi/vw specialist not a backstreet garage! Just given up on it now!
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Why don't you list on here everything that you've tried so far then and maybe someone will have so more not so expensive suggestions
 
ab1702 said:
Why don't you list on here everything that you've tried so far then and maybe someone will have so more not so expensive suggestions
Click to expand...

Most of it is above!

Change cap from Porsche back to standard!
No visual leaks when pressure tested
No power loss that I can tell
Egr valve and cooler deleted
Ran dye in coolant with no traces
Just had head gasket done!

Iv now put a lot of money in with no luck... Definitely recommend people avoid buying a 2.0 BKD
 
I know how it feels mate, after investing all that money and no luck.
Can you go back to the specialist to complain about it and see if you would get a discount to get the head changed if it's actually the head.
Did they pressure test your head though???
 
I'd be tempted to sell it, I know that's not the answer you're looking for but when you've put money into it you've got to stop somewhere and is it worth the stress.
Anyhow good luck with it.
Cars aren't half a pain in the *** sometimes!
 
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