Hi all, did 340 miles over motorway driving in 2 stints over the weekend, swiftly paced. Noticed I have a slight coolant leak from one of the hoses that clamps on to the plastic hoses that run at front of the engine with small pool of coolant on under tray. Went out again last night for 15 mins and it didn't appear to leak again, I cleaned it up first. Any ideas on whether to just reseat the spring clamp or to put a jubilee clip on this? Many thanks 

before and after clean up pics 

If it is no longer leaking probably leave it.  Did you partially disassemble? Sure there is no crack in the flexible or plastic pipe?  If it continues to leak I'd be more inclined to get new spring clips and tubing. If you did use a jubilee clip careful not to deform or crush the plastic tube connector.

Haven't touched this area at all. The car has had a slight loss of coolant (from max to minimum on header bottle) in 2 years which could be this i guess that has now shown itself on a long run. I am tempted to put a jubilee clip on it as i have some long journeys coming up, but that will involve disturbing it and taking the pipe off etc.

On 5/2/2017 at 12:09, kton200281 said:

Haven't touched this area at all. The car has had a slight loss of coolant (from max to minimum on header bottle) in 2 years which could be this i guess that has now shown itself on a long run. I am tempted to put a jubilee clip on it as i have some long journeys coming up, but that will involve disturbing it and taking the pipe off etc.

If it was me, i would fit a new spring clip, not a good idea to fit a jubilee clip there as to much pressure will crack the plastic tubing, spring clips are designed to apply just the right amount of pressure to secure the hose but not too much so the plastic tube won't crack.

 

You can by the right kind of pliers to fit/remove spring clips quiet cheaply now as well, u can find them on ebay or amazon.

For info, this was in fact the coolant spring clip denting the air con hose eventualyl puncturing it. Had a regas today, and all the refrigerant came out which identified this problem. Anyone with a petrol VRS FL tsi engine - check it out. The clip was pressing against the hose from new, and eventually has worn through the metal pipe from expanding / contracting etc.

Thanks for coming back. I will look at mine, so it wasn't coolant you could see but refrigerant?>

Although my L& K is a 1.8 tsi think i'll check around the aircon pipes/water hoses just incase.

Correct - this was refrigerant that was leaking (I did wonder why it was green and not red!) but didn't think much of it at the time as couldn't see the hole in the metal air con pipe. 

On 04/05/2017 at 20:12, kton200281 said:

Correct - this was refrigerant that was leaking (I did wonder why it was green and not red!) but didn't think much of it at the time as couldn't see the hole in the metal air con pipe. 

Luckily mine was put together so the spring clip is not rubbing on the the aircon pipe. See pic. But thanks for the call out.

 

Replaced the pipe, had a regas, and air con is now as it should be. You been spraying some yellow paint in there?!

Oh good.

 

No, funny you mention that.  I didn't look at the photo really as I saw it in person!!  Think it shows up in the photo under the led torch light I used. Maybe a previous or current Aircon gas leak but not caused by the spring clip on the metal pipework as that is all good! Or just the dust particles looking funny under the LED light... Aircon still working but another thing to investigate!

Edited 8 May, 20179 yr by TheClient

Had another look.  The car is covered in yellow tree pollen even after washing a few days ago,  from a small Yew tree in our garden.  It is windy at moment I suppose. It seems to be finding its way to the engine bay too. So much yellow powder. It looks worse and more yellow in photos, I suppose because of the artificial light source, but it is everywhere!