Hi all, I hope you can help me. The car is mum's as I am more of a biker so, trying to help in between her and the garage and thought you guys might be able to clarify something for me.

 

CAR

 

Skoda Octavia 2.0TDI L&K DSG 07 plate

 

122,000 miles with full Skoda main dealer service history

 

Problem

 

It is beginning to use coolant. Never alot and never got low enough to put the coolant light on. Mum just kept an eye on it and noticed it beginning to move down a small amount over a month or so.

Took it to the garage and they said there was nothing obvious and to keep an eye on it.

 

The problem is now getting a little worse. Again non warning light on but it is using coolant more often.

Took it back to the garage who had a good "look" about and did a pressure test. The pressure test passed and showed no problems. So I am hoping it is not the cylinder head.

 

The garage again said "just keep an eye" though I would rather be a bit more proactive and protect the engine if I can.

 

There is alot of talk on the web and on here about the water pump being the culprit / area.  I dont think the garage took the cambelt covers etc. off to have a look.

 

 

Question

 

 

What I am struggling to get a definate answer on is whether this issue of the waterpump is also relevant to the 2.0 TDI engine. If so I can ask the garage to have a look there before deciding whether to change that as a preventative measure. However I do not want to spend that sort of money if it is not on the 2.0TDI. To that end can anyone advise me as to whether the 2.0TDI is also effected by this water pump leak either from their own expierence or from something here I have missed.

 

Thanks very much indeed.

 

Ben.

Hi all, I hope you can help me. The car is mum's as I am more of a biker so, trying to help in between her and the garage and thought you guys might be able to clarify something for me.

 

CAR

 

Skoda Octavia 2.0TDI L&K DSG 07 plate

 

122,000 miles with full Skoda main dealer service history

 

Problem

 

It is beginning to use coolant. Never alot and never got low enough to put the coolant light on. Mum just kept an eye on it and noticed it beginning to move down a small amount over a month or so.

Took it to the garage and they said there was nothing obvious and to keep an eye on it.

 

The problem is now getting a little worse. Again non warning light on but it is using coolant more often.

Took it back to the garage who had a good "look" about and did a pressure test. The pressure test passed and showed no problems. So I am hoping it is not the cylinder head.

 

The garage again said "just keep an eye" though I would rather be a bit more proactive and protect the engine if I can.

 

There is alot of talk on the web and on here about the water pump being the culprit / area.  I dont think the garage took the cambelt covers etc. off to have a look.

 

 

Question

 

 

What I am struggling to get a definate answer on is whether this issue of the waterpump is also relevant to the 2.0 TDI engine. If so I can ask the garage to have a look there before deciding whether to change that as a preventative measure. However I do not want to spend that sort of money if it is not on the 2.0TDI. To that end can anyone advise me as to whether the 2.0TDI is also effected by this water pump leak either from their own expierence or from something here I have missed.

 

Thanks very much indeed.

 

Ben.

At that sort of mileage it's not much of a waste to replace the water pump anyway,  Have you checked for signs of water in the oil, such as mayonnaise under the filler cap (although this also happens on cars which do short trips)?  Leaks usually show up as white streaks of dried coolant, so you could take off the undertray and have a really good look around with a torch.  Hoses often weep a bit around the connections as they get old and hardened, especially if the connection has been disturbed for some reason.

 

It's very hard to detect a small head gasket failure to the cylinder if the pressure test is OK.  However, you sometimes get unusual symptoms from gases coming the other way, so the coolant might smell slightly of fuel or it might be venting from the pressure cap.

 

Top marks to your mother for actually doing underbonnet checks though.  Many lady drivers never lift the bonnet.

Check for a perished seal on the expansion tank, have you had the turbo replaced lately? If so might be worth checking the water lines to the turbo.

I had this problem on mine. Replaced cam belt and water pump. Also check black plastic housing on right hand side of engine. Contains a temp sensor. One mounting bolt had wrecked the thread and was slowly leaking, had it helicoiled. No leak now.

Check for a perished seal on the expansion tank, have you had the turbo replaced lately? If so might be worth checking the water lines to the turbo.

That's the reason mine has dropped coolant recently.

Hi Rogerzilla , thanks for your advice.

 

Check for signs of water in the oil : Yes I have there is none at all. Oil filler cap and dipstick always just oil.

 

White streaks around hoses etc: that was the inspection the garage gave was to look at all visible pipes. 

 

All visable clips are dry with no powder and all pipes in good order. Taking garage at their word that they looked at all the pipes that were possible to see without too much dismantalling.

 

I will have a good sniff in the cap tomorrow and see if I can catch any fumes.

 

There is a wet squeek from startup so I am hoping that it might be a tell tale of the pump leak. Just hoping for no issue with cylinder head.

 

She comes from the farming world so a bit more tuned in to such things.

 

Hi Martziniuk, thanks for your advice, will check the seal. Didnt spot one. I did replace the coolant cap as the cheapest first option but no joy.

 

No, the turbo has not been touched. Hopefully those pipes would have been checked as part of the garage checks.

Hi Simon, cheers for that, glad you got it sorted!  Gives me hope!

Thanks J0hn , erm stupid question but where does this seal you are talking sit? I am guessing in the top of the coolant tank where the blue lid sits? If so, I will double check but I dont think there is one there.

Hi, thanks I will double check but according to the garage, there is something in the coolant that when it leaks through a pipe join etc. it leaves a residue and there is none but I will certainly check again.

Hi Ben,

I would be interested in any resolution as I also have a small coolant leak somewhere (completely different engine).

Had radiator pressure tested with nothing found.

Mine uses about a egg cupful a week and I decided just to live with it and keep topping up, especially before a long

journey.

I suspect it's a VW feature as I've never had any coolant loss from previous Nissans I've owned over the years.

Will keep you posted, I think I will see if I can get the garage to check and see if there is any leak around the water pump and go from there.

Thanks J0hn , erm stupid question but where does this seal you are talking sit? I am guessing in the top of the coolant tank where the blue lid sits? If so, I will double check but I dont think there is one there.

Sorry - following on from Martin's post, my symptom I believe is directly related to the recent fitting of a turbo.

I think coolant is coming from the water lines.

Firstly Im no mechanic, just my thoughts

Cant understand using coolant & no light, there is a level sensor in the expansion tank that should trigger the light I believe. If its only a miniscule amount the volume of water in the system when cold reduces slightly as colder days approach & there are usually a few threads this time of year re warning lights on, also when its colder there's sometimes water in the oil cap due to condensation if you do mainly short runs but yours appears clear.

First thing I would do is check the lights working, easy I would have thought by taking some water out of the system, take the pipe off the tank & drain some, syphon it out of the expansion tank, or if neither of these work get one of those kitchen cleaning sprays, take the top off & drop the pipe into the expansion tank & pump away, takes an age but does work.

If the light is working you are loosing miniscule amounts , possibly as I said due to cooler days but either way you know the light works & can drive the car knowing any sudden loss will be shown by the light & keep a bottle of water in the car just in case.

If the loss is that small personally I would live with it until it gets worse if it does at all, all you are doing is paying a garage to find a miniscule leak.

If the water pump did fail temps would rise and a few lights would alert you to that as well.

Firstly Im no mechanic, just my thoughts Cant understand using coolant & no light, there is a level sensor in the expansion tank that should trigger the light I believe.

The warning light won't trigger until the coolant level drops just below MIN (I believe anyway).

Thanks,  the coolant is not being allowed to drop to a level below min so its not about the light, thanks though. The coolant loss has been getting worse over the year hence the investigation. I onmly mentioned to light to demonstrate we had not let it totally drain of coolant.

Edited 13 November, 201312 yr by gixxerrider

The warning light won't trigger until the coolant level drops just below MIN (I believe anyway).

 

My vRS has a coolant leak from somewhere and passes the pressure check but when I put it in to the dealers the coolant was under the min mark but the coolant light hadn't come on so I guess that the light doesn't come on until you are massively under the min mark.

I had a similar issue where my coolant level was dropping, albeit very slowly. All the usual pipes & expansion tank were checked but no leaks were found.

I had noticed on one occasion, a very small amount of moisture in the front passenger footwell. So small in fact, I thought it was water which had been walked in from a passengers shoe.

I managed to squeeze my hand behind and into the heater matrix from the passenger footwell. I could feel a metal pipe and on occasions but not always, could feel moisture running down the outside of the pipe.

My mechanic mate pressure tested the system & initially couldn't find a fault. He asked to keep the car for another day and did another pressure test and found a very small leak from a pipe at the rear of the engine, into the heater matrix. He tightened it and its not lost a drop of coolant since.

He did say it was a bit of a bugger to get to and fix, but it's done the trick.

Hope this helps.

cheers flying pig I will add that check to the list!

Just to bring my post up to date, at a service today, the garage advised that the radiator was now leaking and needed a replacement.

So a pressure test found nothing, I have just been topping up every couple of weeks and now bang the radiator's gone.

I suspect this may be a fault with VW supply of dodgy radiators (bad brazing or something).

New one is costing £110 + VAT and fitting so not a cheap service for me!

Still it's better than it letting go on a motorway somewhere miles from home.

No impact or misuse of radiator by the way.