Help needed before spending money unwisely!!

My 2004 vrs is giving me a lot of problems recently, beginning to think they will never end.

One of said problems is my expansion bottle has quite a lot of bubbles in it and does not lose pressure even if left overnight it still hisses the day after.

The top radiator hose takes a long time to get warm and then doesnt get extremely hot, the bottm one is always cold.

The heaters in the car still get warm and can see coolant/water still coming in.

There are no strange noises under the bonnet, although the car seems to vibrate more.

There is no water in oil or steam from exhaust.

There i doesnt seem to be any coolant loss or leak. Although i did put radweld in a few weeks ago due to a leak which seemed to be from bottom corner of the radiator.

Sorry for the long post, but any advice would be gratefully received before i buy new water pump n cambelt kit tomorrow :-[

So.... I replaced the radiator cap and the thermostat n still the same hmmmmm..... Any ideas??????

for a start rad weld is horrible and i would never recommend anybody uses it it can cause blockages in pipes in the radiator and heater matrix where they aren't wanted etc...

what do you mean by other probs? what caused you to change the thermostat etc ...

have you tried running the car without the thermostat in? you could then see if all pipes get warm.

what do you mean bubbles in coolant tank ??

have you run the car without the coolant tank lid on? the overflow / vent isnt blocked is it ?

How much pressure is it holding? A very slight hiss isn't unusual but significant 'hiss' would have me considering a sniffer test. Have you tried squeezing the pipes incase it's an air lock and what's the coolant temp sensor showing? How are the hoses after you've driven 10 miles? Remember a TDI is quite thermally efficient so can take an age to warm up in the cold weather we are having.

The other problem is to do with the car getting stuck in gear.

The reason i did the thermostat n cap was to try the cheap things first!

Radweld was a last resort as it was 10pm amd had work which is 60miles away.

The car has been run without the cap on amd sqeezing the pipe, just pushed the bubbles up out of the top. Water is returning to the bottle and i dont seem to be losing any which is why im hoping its not the hg.

The bubbles are tiny a bit like foam really.

The top rad hose is taking forever to warm up

and then doesnt get very hot.

Thinking the next thing to try is a coolant flush then sniffer test.

its been between 0 and 2 degrees here all day and i can leave my car on tick over for an hour and it barely leaves the bottom of the temp gauge you would have to take the car for about a 10 - 15 min run for it to get properly to temp then check hoses.....

as for the little bubbles the water re enters the coolant tank at the top and the water is at the half way point so your bound to get a few bubbles / airation from the water splashing back in

as for gears locking up have you tried resetting / adjusting the gear linkage? i was surprised what a diff this made to mine....

Radweld.... thats the problem. I had a Leon 1.9TDI which had the exact same problem due to the previous owner using radweld. Horrible stuff, swap the expansion bottle for a new one and flush the system properly. Then identify the leak and fix it properly.

cheapest new copy rad on ebay is £57 may be worth getting a different rad without leaks flushing the system and starting from scratch or try braising the rad to seal the leak if your feeling daring lol

Its not just a few bubbles, its full of them. Will have to see what the flush does, fingers crossed.

Hopefully its nothing much

Thanks for the help, this car is driving me nuts.

Tried the linkage, jus made the gear stick wobble more haha. Its now doing it in second. Only had clutch replaced a couple of months ago. It was doing it before then. Could kick the thing sometimes

where abouts in yorkshire are you?? ive got an 04 fabia vrs if you wanted to compare?

Im near wakefield in west yorkshire

im in castleford near xscape so if u wanted to compare with mine im sure we could meet in the middle somewhere

its been between 0 and 2 degrees here all day and i can leave my car on tick over for an hour and it barely leaves the bottom of the temp gauge you would have to take the car for about a 10 - 15 min run for it to get properly to temp then check hoses.....

Diesels onl get warm when working. I used to do nights on standby using a transit van . Great from the POV of comfort - at 5'6" i could stretch out on the seats and get some kip . But when cold, even with heater on low ,I sometimes had to take it for a run to get heat back in engine , and this one could be running for three hours on a cold night before loosing all heat . it used to be possible,years ago to repair rads using plumbing solder, but last one I changed ( few years ago ) had a fair bit of plastic in it .

Well..... still really haven't solved either of the problems..... cannot believe how much of a pain this Vrs has been. Not looking forward to the MOT at the end of the month

Just take the cap off. Star it up hold a 2k rev and then go to 3k and if the water floods out of the expansion tank. It will be head gasket due to the compression chamber is leading into one of the water galleries in the engine

I'am in wakey if you want someone to have a look at it just send us a pm I work opposite juke of Wellington pub on Horbury road just pop in ask for graham if I'am there I'll take a look at it for you I'am at work most days including sat sun can't say I'll be able to fix it but I'll have a look