Hi All & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I was looking through my service history at the stamps,& ticks in boxes etc as to what's been done,but there seems to be no record of whether or not the coolant has been changed.

Is it part of any service? or recommended at any particular interval?

The car is a '52 reg 1.8t on about 38,000 miles with fSsh up to 27500.I bought it at 28,000 & have done an oil/filter change at 35,000 with fully synth 5/40.I also put in a pipercross air filter.And had it remapped

Like any car I've owned,I intend to maintain this one myself.

I've done plenty coolant changes on other cars,is there anything out of the ordinary I need to be aware of about a coolant change on this engine? (I know I'd need G12 & would get it from Skoda)

And out of interest,can anyone tell me,if you were to ask Skoda to do this job (on it's own,not as part of a service),approx how much would they charge?

And ditto for a brake fliud change,how much from Skoda?

Thanks in advance

The coolant should be changed every 5 years, this is due to it's corrosion inhibitors getting depleted over time. When we change a cambelt, we usually change the water pump, which means draining the cooling system, so we also change the coolant. It may be worth checking any invoices as it may have already been done. The coolant change is straight forward, drain, refill and run the engine until the fan cuts in and when cool, top up as ncessary.

With a brake fluid change, you must not let the fluid get too low in the reservoir as there is a risk of getting air in the ABS valve block. If this happens, youll need to bleed it with diagnostic equipment.

Costwise, I would guess at 0.5 hour for the coolant and 0.75 hour for the brake fluid, £20 for 3 litres of G12 and £5 for a litre of brake fluid.

Brake fluid change cost me £35 from an independant VAG garage.

Not sure if 1.8T is the same, but on 1.9 diesels, disconnect top radiator hose and fill it up until you see coolant in the radiator and the bottle, then reconnect the hose, run the engine and top up as appropriate.

Refilling the engine via the coolant cap only usually leaves a large airlock in the top radiator hose.

Leading to overheated head gasket and exhaust going into coolant system when engine is under load.

I learned the hard way, after stealer did the timing belt on my car. After a year, engine started expelling coolant under load, and the temp would shoot up to 120 after joining motorway (20-70mph uphill).

Cheers guys,thanks for the replies