Losing coolant

[TEKelso]

Over the last two weeks The level of coolant in the reservoir "bulb" has dropped to below the marked minimum level. On the first occasion it was topped up with "G12" at a close-by garage. for the first few days after topping up the level was monitored with no apparent drop in the level. Today I have found that the level is just under the marked minimum level and have topped up to half way between the minimum and maximum levels with TESCO antifreeze/summer coolant. Have been unable to see any signs of this leakage, cardboard on ground under engine proving useless for this purpose owing being sodden with driving rain!

Have book car in with SKODA dealer in two days time. Hopefully remedial action will come under warranty which has 9 months to run.

Any other experience of such coolant loss with a relatively new car?

[Ootohere]

Yes,

last week at a Dealers 20,000 mile service on my other halfs 'new used car', 10,000 miles, they topped up from Min to Max with G12 Plus.

by 100 or so miles later it was back sitting at 'Minimum' as it was before they topped it.

600 miles or so more and it still is.

Happy with this, as it is just fine.

No coolant loss, just showing the correct level.

This is how my own car also sits,

'Min' is fine by me, as long as it does not lose coolant & go any lower.

george

[P1TT8ULL]

Mine sits at minimum no matter how much its topped up

[skoda1982]

never topped mine up always at min mark from new

[Guest]

MIne is always at max when cold and only just above that when hot. Tek, youi don't say what model you have and what engine it is. Petrol or diesel?

[PDIBK]

My Dad's 1.9 TDI Fabia and my Superb 1.9 TDI Greenline both got this and both had the water pump changed under warranty - my Superb twice.

Imagine my horror when the brand new Fabia 1.6 TDI turns up and I check the levels to find it is at minimum when 2 days old! I did some more reading and found that it sits low when cool as the fluid stays in the system, showing a true level when the engine is up to temp (roughly in line with the blue temp light extinguishing - that scared the crap out of me too).

BUT, I would check the water pump carefully, especially if it's a diesel engine - mine had originally been checked by a dealer for leaks, none found, the loss persisted and the source was discovered when a tyre dealer took off the under engine plate to get to something and it was full of pink coolant...that was the first pump. It went again when the car was in for its service and the dealer picked it up. They were dead chuffed that they had spotted it and changed the pump "on warranty, so free", until I pointed out it was the second time they'd done it in 6 months!

[emz4980]

Yes. End result - new radiator fitted under warranty on a 2010 vRS!

[Ootohere]

LOL, take it you were losing coolant. was there some post or something previously about your vRS?

george

[emz4980]

Yep, loosing engine coolant. Went into dealership for investigation and a small crack in the radiator was found, all replaced under warranty with no problems.

You've got a good memory George, I was one of the ones with a "squeaky" vRS! Although the squeak has since disappeared completely.

[Ootohere]

? Brakes?

I have very squeeky brakes today, & a creaky hand brake.

Days & days of rain & of big puddles.

time to start getting greased up for winter if the warm weather comes next week.

george

[emz4980]

Nope, squeak was from the supercharger. Seemed quite a few of us with the same problem back then but it went in for a service and didn't have it when I had it back, so no idea what happened to "maurice the mouse", they say they didn't do anything to it?

[TEKelso]

Fabia 11 Petrol 1.4

Car at local Skoda dealer where loss of coolant was found to be leak in water pump which additionally had contaminated the timing belt...both renewed under warranty. Reading Briskodian's message on this page brought to mind that I had a "catastrophic" water pump/timing belt failure at 70mph (+) on M6...luckily very close to the Haydock Park slip road. This was an Octavia, some 5 years ago.. AA Relay attended but couldn't identify the fault roadside resulting in car and we two being ferried 200 odd miles back to Ayrshire. In this case I had bought the car with 18K miles on odometer and fault occurred at 27K.

In present instance, I had this in mind, having timing belt (and possibly water pump) replaced early,at 40K miles (presently 34.4K), so instead of the expected bill for £300+, this, in effect, has been done under warranty

Many thanks for all your responses.