Mickeyluv

Thanks, that's a nicely detailed explanation. The trick is to either find a car that had them from new (could be too recent/expensive for me), a car that had them owner-fitted early on in life, or a rust-free example and fit them myself. That's a little more challenging,as it's difficult to ascertain what's going on underneath even if there's no external sign of corrosion.

I'm looking to buy a Citigo and the one thing that's on my mind is rust around the filler cap. I've seen plenty of otherwise good examples that show serious corrosion or have obvious signs of repair or failed repairs in this area. What year did arch liners get fitted by the factory? I see the VW Up! Got them for the face-lift in 2016, but can't find anything difinitive regarding the Citigo.

I took another really good look at the car and decided to err on the side of caution and walk away. I went with a 60ml clear syringe and took a sample of coolant when cold and it was fizzing - lots of dissolved gas making it look milky, and bubbles rising like a freshly poured glass of champagne. There didn't seem to be excess pressurization when hot, but the coolant level after a 5 mile brisk run down the dual carriageway had risen much more than could be accounted for by expansion alone. I did try burping the system but didn't get anything and the heater worked fine. There's a lot of bubbling in the expansion tank when running. The car also has a very high bite point on the clutch (almost at the end of travel) and very narrow range of engagement. I'd factored in a new clutch in the price, but given that the car has had major cylinder head work only 600 miles ago makes me apprehensive. A new clutch and head gasket would cost nearly as much as the purchase price of the car. Really what I needed was a combustion gas indicator to be more certain as to whether there may be a leaking head gasket.

My previous other Skoda Yetis have both maintained pretty even levels, hot or cold. I checked my Yeti just after a 30 mile run and the level rise is just a few mm. The only other time I've seen a significant rise was with a petrol Golf when the expansion tank cap was leaking. Only slightly, but the level went up from maximum to almost 3/4 full. You make a good point to it returning to the same level when cold.

I'm considering a 2013 Fabia with the 12V HTP petrol engine. I inspected it from cold and the coolant level was about 15mm above the maximum mark. There was no sign of discolouration or any oily film in the expansion tank. It had a timing chain kit and inlet valve replacement done in June this year by a reputable garage and I think it may have been filled too high. The owner said that the car originally drove fine without any sign of a problem and he came to it one morning and the engine turned over on the starter but would not start and it was recovered to the garage. I took it for a test drive and it pulls quite nicely without any issue, but when I checked the coolant afterwards it had risen by maybe another 15mm or so. I realize that the level increase would appear to be greater the further away from the seam you get and this may give a distorted impression of the coolant expansion. For reference, what is the typical coolant level rise in these cars between cold and hot, assuming the level at cold is at or below the maximum mark? My concern is whether there's a problem arising from the work carried out.

I'm considering a late 2014 Fabia as a runabout with the CGPA engine and almost 80,000 miles. Are there any problems to look for with the later engine, and did the cam chain and tensioner get revised?