Pmedic

So, I think this is mission accomplished. as suggested I put the forte treatment in then drove to the workshop. i pulled the hoses off the rad and charge cooler and took a hose to them both. Quite a lot of crud came out of both and they both needed several minutes hosing before the water ran clear. In then filled the system with water and remove the return line to the expansion tank. I ran it until this was clear too and then drained the system again from the bottom hoses. time for a cup of tea. now it was time to tackle the matrix. I bought an updated version from a local company who advertise on eBay. It’s a bit more money, but this is a job I want to do once only, and the wider waterways and brass/copper construction should last longer and prevent future problems. Also this came with the new seals and clamps. Someone had clearly been in there before as some clips were broken and the annoying plastic cover from the videos was missing. Hey ho This was the easiest and least time consuming part of the whole operation. The old unit came out easily, and the new one went in easily. Reconnecting the pipes is the hardest bit, helps to be left handed. loads of crud came out of the old matrix, almost like sand. Whether it was the original and it had been flushed out is hard to say. It may well have cleaned out, but having gone this far I wasn’t chancing it. then it was pipes back on and refill. I stupidly left my vacuum filler at home, So it had to be done the old fashioned way, and then bled using vcds. It’s definitely getting warm now. i had to top it up when i got home but this is to be expected. for future reference - vacuum filing should speed the process considerably and enable more flushes in the same amount of time. I’ve not tried this yet, and hope to not need to now! a smear of Vaseline on the male connectors greatly helps putting the pipes back on the radiators and the heater itself. The documented difficulty in getting all Of the old coolant out is no exaggeration. I wish I’d bought concentrated coolant as I’m now not sure there is quite enough antifreeze in. I did put a litre of concentrate in so it shoud be acceptable. I used g13 from euro, the new expansion bottle has got silica in it and to be honest for the £20 they cost it could/should be treated as a service item. the whole process took about 4 hours, if doing again this could be reduced.

I was planning to use forte bio degreaser / coolant flush. im not wedded to doing this

Warrior they do now - the car and cabin both warm up quickly. before it took ages. i cut the old expansion bottle open, the silica bag was intact, so that too is - fortunately -eliminated. i think all I need to do is run the purge process in vcds, but the “while I’m at it” part of me thinks for the sake of an hour or so’s work let’s get it perfect - it’s just how do I do that 😂 on all other cars I’ve owned it’s been bottom hose off and refill with the heater on - this is more involved 😂

Cheers it’s doesn’t overheat, pressurise, or lose coolant so deffo not a headgasket issue. oil cooler in the past is a possibility, or it’s just been filled with plain water. It was a nasty colour when I first had the car.

I’m leaning towards: put bio flush in and drive to work. use vcds to put car into bleed mode drain as per Audi video. fill as per Audi video. run the bleed through using vcds. does this seem logical? thanks

Hi everyone. I’ve had a good google on this and have found more differnent answers than I expected! The car is a 2016 2litre tdi dsg. There was no history with the car whatsoever, it looks like it’s stood for a very long time then been run - possibly as a taxi - for 6 months or as long as they could get away with it untaxed. The above said, there are no underlying issues and it drives nicely now that the seized brakes have been overhauled! immediately upon buying it I sent it to my regular garage to change everything. All oils, cambelt, water pump etc. the water pump was faulty so if was changed again. They were under pressure as the owner was going away and I suspect it wasn’t properly bled. We noticed a few weeks later the sound of running water behind the dash. The sort of sound that makes you think a tap is running! I pulled the hoses off the heater matrix and gave it a good flush out with a hose. I reconnected it and fitted a new expansion tank as the old one was very brown inside. I cut the old one open, the silica bag was still in place and intact. since then it’s been much better, but I can still - just - hear the water going round. it looks like the bleed process is a bit drawn out. I’ve seen a video of a Audi using a pressure system to bleed it - I have one of those at home. Ive also seen that you can use vcds to do a process too. I also have vcds neither on their own mention the other and I don’t have enough specific knowledge on these cars! if someone can point me in the direction of a definitive guide that would be very helpful I’d quite like to drain it, run a bio flush through then refill but I may not need to do this as the new coolant is still clean 2000 miles or so later. thanks for any help

Thanks. we also come to the conclusion that if we trace the wires from the relevant bits on the old seat and replicate on the new one it’d work. And it does. No airbag light but I do have a seat belt warning. I think we may have forgotten to plug in the rear seatbemt plug on the middle seat….. we’d both had enough by then! The towbar wiring wore us out!!

Sorted! so simple I don’t even want to talk about it…….. misread of the instructions.

Sorry to be the needy new member……… weve just fitted a towbar to my 2016 octy weve use the dedicated wiring pack. weve followed the instructions The battery was disconnected while doing the wiring. The car won’t start, red light is flashing on the drivers door. No main beam, or indicators off the stalk but the indicators work off the hazard switch. it won’t lock. its like something isn’t connected but we have checked the bcm connectors thoroughly - they’re all improperly but the back one wasn’t the first time. any clues? thanks

Hi all just bought an Octy - 2016 on a 66 plate. In saw a nice looking set of VRs seats so I thought I’d swap them over. However the plugs in the drivers seat are different. My car drivers seat has the yellow block plug and a smaller black one, yellow and brown wire the new drivers seat has the same yellow plug but a much larger block plug and a different black plug. Its not Got electric controls but may be heated. before i start dismantling has anyone got around this before? Is it just swap the seat looms over? thanks :)