How do you find your coolant levels?

 

When the car is cold in the morning, hot after drive etc..?

In the 5 months/11,000miles I've had my TSI VRS I've had to top up coolant twice. The last time was 650 miles ago and, with a cold engine, it has dropped from the max line to the min line. 

It is going into the dealers tomorrow to see if there is a problem.

 

Topping up to the max line when cold it seems to be about 2cm above the max line when hot.

1-2cm below the min line when cold it seems to be within the min-max range when hot.

Edited 6 November, 201411 yr by jonjc

How do you find your coolant levels?

When the car is cold in the morning, hot after drive etc..?

 

Should be when it is cold in the morning & anywhere between the MAX & MIN marker is ok.

The expansion tank is designed to allow the fluid to expand when its hot so it is normal if the engine is very hot that it can be over the MAX line.

In the 5 months/11,000miles I've had my TSI VRS I've had to top up coolant twice. The last time was 650 miles ago and, with a cold engine, it has dropped from the max line to the min line.

Can you smell antifreeze in the cabin while driving?

If you do a search on this forum coolant level has been mentioned several times, a few are here, have a read through them.

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/325758-coolent-prob/?hl=%2Bcoolant#entry3907978

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/331875-coolant-levels-vrs-tdi/?hl=%2Bcoolant#entry3992024

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/299816-low-coolant-warning/?hl=%2Bcoolant#entry3575102

Edited 6 November, 201411 yr by cnc

Only had to top up my mk5 golf tfsi once as the rad started to leak. That much coolant loss, i'd be back at the stealers personally.

Check when it's cold (as said above). Be aware that VAG is not very generous with coolant liquid: on my Scirocco the dealer had to top it up, since they delivered it with such a close to min level that it gave me an alarm early on.

You shouldn't have to top up at all. I haven't in the last 4 years! Unless you have a leak somewhere, or if it is not close to min right from the start.

HTH

The O3 seems to suffer with trapped air in the system, tends to come out after a long high temperature drive.

Seemed to have happened to mine so I topped mine up to the marker but strangely has gone back up and is now slightly above max so not really sure whats gone on.

I bought some G13 and leave it in the boot just in case now.

In the 5 months/11,000miles I've had my TSI VRS I've had to top up coolant twice. The last time was 650 miles ago and, with a cold engine, it has dropped from the max line to the min line. 

It is going into the dealers tomorrow to see if there is a problem.

 

Apparently I have a leak in the secondary fuel pump (whatever on earth that is).  They don't have the part until Tuesday but let me have the car back as OK to drive until it is fixed as long as I keep an eye on the coolant level.

Jonjc,

Sounds about right with the pump. I found this thread by chance on a german forum and several members reported a leak in the waterpump (not the fuelpump though). Not sure why a leak in a fuelpump would cause coolant loss (fuel isn't cooled after all), but then again, I'm not a mechanic.

Do any of you with cooland loos sometimes get weird smell in the cabin while driving?

Do any of you with cooland loos sometimes get weird smell in the cabin while driving?

Are you sure this isn't the DPF regeneration smell?.

It could be a leaking heater core. Evaporated coolant being blown into the cabin.

It could be a leaking heater core. Evaporated coolant being blown into the cabin.

The problem is how do I diagnoze that with the dealer?

 

I cant leave him the car because the smell is faint at times when present..

 

I dont have any dashboard warnings so far...

dealer will pressure test it, which will find a leak if present.  its then down to them to find and fix it, tellling them of odd smells should help them.

The problem is how do I diagnoze that with the dealer?

I cant leave him the car because the smell is faint at times when present..

I dont have any dashboard warnings so far...

Another symptom of a very bad heater core leak is a greasy film building up on your windscreen, especially if you use the defroster a lot.

Just mention the smell to the service guy. If there is a leak, it won't be difficult to find.

Apparently I have a leak in the secondary fuel pump (whatever on earth that is).  They don't have the part until Tuesday but let me have the car back as OK to drive until it is fixed as long as I keep an eye on the coolant level.

OK – not the fuel pump (I didn't think that sounded right)  – a coolant/water pump (apparently there are more than one).  They had it in yesterday and then found that the replacement pump didn’t come with the necessary replacement seal included so they had to keep it another day for the seal to be delivered (pretty annoying).

I picked up today – nothing to pay – all on warranty. :-)

 

Sadly, as I arrived home (after a 15-20 in journey) the low coolant level warning came up and on checking, the (hot) level was down about 1.5cm below the minimum.  This makes it worse than before as I never saw that warning before (I just noticed the level dropping on the header tank).  :-(

 

Needless to say I was on the phone straight away to the dealers and the man who worked on it was very apologetic saying that this is the first one of these they’ve had to do (a downside of having a new model!).  He asked if I could see any sign of coolant leak in the engine compartment or on the floor which, to be fair, I couldn’t.  So he suggested that as there are a number of pumps, there may have been an air lock in one of them which once it worked its way through manifested as a significant drop in coolant level.  He advised me to top it up when it is cold and see if it drops again upon driving.  If it does drop then I’m to take it back for them to have another look at.

OK – not the fuel pump (I didn't think that sounded right)  – a coolant/water pump (apparently there are more than one). 

It's "reassuring" to hear that it's the same problem as reported in Germany and not something new. Then again, mate, I'm gutted for you. Sounds a bit like it being christmas and after opening your present Santa rips it out of your hands again.

While I think that 1.5cm is a lot for an air bubble, my dealer told me for the Scirocco that sometimes the light even comes on when a drop is stuck on the sensor, so it seems that the whole system is rather tricky. I hope that simply topping up solves the problem this time.

There isn't a lot of difference between Max and min, maybe about 100ml I'd guess from topping the system up, so I could see an air lock taking the level well down.  The garage should have run the car, and had the heater on, to get air locks out, but sometimes/often it takes a good motorway run to get them all out.  Keep an eye on it, there may still be more air in there.

There isn't a lot of difference between Max and min, maybe about 100ml I'd guess from topping the system up, so I could see an air lock taking the level well down.  The garage should have run the car, and had the heater on, to get air locks out, but sometimes/often it takes a good motorway run to get them all out.  Keep an eye on it, there may still be more air in there.

 

I noticed that they had driven it 7 miles and the heater was set to 'Hi' - a level I never use.

We'll see what tomorrow's 40 mile motorway commute brings.

Edited 18 November, 201411 yr by jonjc

Another symptom of a very bad heater core leak is a greasy film building up on your windscreen, especially if you use the defroster a lot.

Just mention the smell to the service guy. If there is a leak, it won't be difficult to find.

Not having any grease file problems but I do have some sort of sweet? (maybe) smell sometimes in the cabin... I already forgot why I thought it was coolant in the first place.. probably this idea came from blown head gasket

BTW, did they send you away with a bottle of g13 coolant to top it up with? You can use some water but if you are down a long way you need to add coolant or your antifreeze concentration will get low. You don't want a frozen and wrecked engine if we get a hard winter.

Coolant Leak located - another ver 3 RS TSI with this issue - I have had the water pump replaced and the housing around it - as a leak was eventually diagnosed as follows: 

 

6k miles - warning light came on and I topped up to just above minimum line - at the annual service, I asked for a pressure test to be done - and this confirmed there was a leak, though the dealer was unable to find it.

Some Ultraviolet dye was added to the coolant and I drove it for another week.  When I returned to the dealer, they were able to see the leak was within the water pump and coolant was emerging from the pump by the belt/pulley.  Parts were ordered and I returned for a third time to the dealer to have both the pump and the housing around it replaced, plus new gaskets, plus new coolant ( naturally). 

 

I am hoping this episode is now over - I will monitor it regularly to make sure it is now properly sealed and not leaking.

 

I am concerned a lot of people are reporting this but no dealer bulletin/recall has been issued yet - there is clearly an issue and I would advise people not to accept just topping up periodically - as the leaking water is likely to cause damage to the pump and this should be rectified under warranty - don't settle for being told that there is air in the system or 'they all do that' - as that is palpable nonsense - if the coolant level drops to this extent, it is clearly leaking out somewhere.

Thankfully in my case water was not going into the engine, and the source of the leak was eventually found - but it has been a struggle and 3 separate visits to the dealer to get it rectified.

 

PW

I had the low level warning just before the first oil service so I got the dealer to pressure test the system, it all came back okay, but i'll continue to monitor on my VRS TDi.

My VRS TSI water pump was replaced after one week of ownership due to leak. I noticed a few spots on my drive and pink fluid within the under tray. Change was performed in March and I have had to top-up once since. There was no water under the car so I assume top-up was needed due to an airlock working it's way free.

 

The water pumps are a bit suspect, so as recommended above get it checked out during servicing if you need to top-up more than once per year.