Friday morning the missus called me and said a "check coolant" warning light had come on the dash she restarted it and it disappeared.i just put it down to a sensor miss-read,however Saturday morning I thought i'd check under the bonnet and hey presto the expansion tank was empty!!!I had checked the levels around a fortnight earlier and all were ok...so I decided to top it up with water and it took 1.5litres so I drove the car a short distance to the skoda dealer and they were kind enough to get someone to check it out. they sent out a guy who had a quick peek under the bonnet and said there is no evidence of water leaking so it must have been an airlock...well the car is 2 years old granted it has only covered 13k from new so I don't think it was an airlock as it would have been noticed well before then.my concern is because I added 1.5l of water is my antifreeze going to be good enough for the winter ahead or shall I insist skoda change it and check more again for leaks....

If you go back to them they will be able to check "freezing point" of your coolant. Adding a water is never a good thing. On some engines it may cause corrosion on the water pump and  plastic impeller will stop spinning/ stopping coolant circulation...

Get them to check the water pump, happened on mine before I chopped it in, no visible signs of a leak. Filled up the expansion tank, Skoda assistance pressure checked it ok, then drove 40 miles and check coolant came up again, went to dealer water pump gone. Fortunately a warranty job. Interestingly you'd expect water dipping underneath but nothing.

The engine undertray catches water leaks, so you won't get a puddle under the car unless it's leaking very quickly. It is possible to see water on the undertray if you shine a light in from the top of the engine, but there's a lot to see through.

Another vote for a leaking water pump here. What with your water ingress issues I'm guessing your dealer is a bit naff?

 

If you've added water to the expansion tank you have significantly diluted the coolant. Only the proper pre-mixed coolant should be used (it is written on the side of the expansion tank).

 

If you are confident the leak is fixed than I'd be having the coolant swapped, especially given winter is well on its way.

 

If the water pump does need replacing it is a big and expensive job as to access the pump you need to remove the cambelt. Once the cambelt is taken off (and untensioned) it can't go back on so the job basically includes the cost of a full cambelt change.

 

Push to have this properly diagnosed and fixed BEFORE the warranty expires.

Leaking water pump here too.  My wife's 2013 1.6 TDi started losing coolant and it turned out to be the water pump.

A 2-3 year old car leaking coolant is not a good sign for the longer term reliability of these engines and they not early production versions of either engine.

We had our car just over a year when the leak happened.  As it was a used car, we only had a 6 month warranty.  We went back to the dealer and after a bit of haggling, they agreed to do the timing belt and the water pump at a 50% discount.  We ended up paying €200 to have the job done which wasn't bad.

 

I wonder if there is a problem with a batch of water pumps on the Superb?  If you bought from a Skoda dealer, it's worth taking it back and seeing if they'll discount the repair work.

Plenty of threads over on the Octavia MkIII forum on faulty water pumps.

ok skoda have had my car for 2 days while they sort another problem,whilst in they have checked for any signs of a water leak and not found anything!!

i find it hard to believe a car can all of a sudden decide to drink 1.5ltrs of water after two years and not have a problem.oh well at least i have 5yrs warrenty on it i guess i will be keeping an even closer eye on the coolant from now on!!!!

Other ways the coolant level can drop without an obvious external leak are that the coolant has leaked into the oil (Unlikely as I'm pretty sure you'd also see oil in the coolant) or that the coolant has evaporated out due to maybe the cap on overflow tank leaking vapour. When you put the lid back on after topping up the coolant you might have accidentally fixed the leak. If there's no further drop in coolant levels this might be the only good explanation.

I had the same just recently. The coolant went under minimum sign, filled up again but no lost anymore sice one month. Maybe something to do with cold temp(winter)?

Same here.....check coolant warning suddenly came on when i did check, the expansion tank was completely empty no obvious signs of leaks etc, filled with anti freeze and have driven 1000= miles and its still fine....bizarre !!??

Same here.....check coolant warning suddenly came on when i did check, the expansion tank was completely empty no obvious signs of leaks etc, filled with anti freeze and have driven 1000= miles and its still fine....bizarre !!??

hhmmm weird one isnt it.....

Same here.....check coolant warning suddenly came on when i did check, the expansion tank was completely empty no obvious signs of leaks etc, filled with anti freeze and have driven 1000= miles and its still fine....bizarre !!??

 

My coolant level warning light came on shortly after I'd had the cambelt/water pump done. My friendly indy advised me that this might happen following the replacement of the water pump as air-locks are quite common. I've topped up twice since then but things seem to have stabilised now (fingers crossed!!).

 

Dave

I also have this issue, my coolant level drop to the MINIMUM sign and stay there until i fill up with coolant, i had changed the water pump already, someone have this problem! Also when i go on long road with more than 80 km/h the water temp on dash is going down to 50 degree!!!

I'd originally posted this under Superb III:

 

I had to top up my 2013 TDI estate with about half a litre at 35,000 miles. I've been keeping an eye on it since and it does not seem to be using any more, and does not seem to have any leaks. The car has done nearly 39,000 miles now and will soon have its 40,000 mile service, so I'll get the dealer to take a look at it then.

 

It sounds like this is nothing much to worry about - or is it?

 

Alan

The only way to check is to remove the cam cover and see if there's staining on the water pump shaft bearing seal?

The only way to check is to remove the cam cover and see if there's staining on the water pump shaft bearing seal?

Many thanks. Would I be right in guessing the water pump is in the head on this model?

in the  side behind the camshaft belt cover?

Edited 21 January, 20179 yr by peterposh

I also have this issue, my coolant level drop to the MINIMUM sign and stay there until i fill up with coolant, i had changed the water pump already, someone have this problem! Also when i go on long road with more than 80 km/h the water temp on dash is going down to 50 degree!!!

You need a new thermostat