Hi.

 

So my octavia has an issue with leaking coolant and a few times overheating.

 

Engine: 1,9 tdi 110bhp enginecode: asv

 

What I've discovered:

- Doesn't look like it leaks when the engine is not running (like overnight)

- (cabin)Heater is a bit unpredictable in terms of giving heat to the cabin, but do sometimes work (i guess thats when there is much liquid in the bottle)

- Today I had a 40min drive and no leak with the aircon/cabinheater off. Turned the cabinheater on, and a very few minutes later there was a leak.

- The leak seems to be from behind the engine on the passenger side. Havn't been able to locate the leak from the top of the engine-bay other than I see that there is liquid on the very bottom parts that is located in the very end of the engine-bay next to the passenger seat.

- I have to refil the container after some driving, its been for this for half a year or so. The car has been used max 1-2 hours trips last half year.

- I often have got the warning of now level on the container when I turn on the ignition. ( i then refill with red fluid(G12ish) + normal water) 

 

Any hints of where to look / suggestion for failing parts etc would be much appreciated.

 

I've attached photos.

1: When I changed the alternator a year ago or so to see under the car

2: The leak from under the car

3: The picture of what I assume is my ASV heating pipes (for the AGR,AHF,ASV,ALH and AQM engines)

@lhlied - Your description makes me think that you have a leak in the heater hoses or matrix. Is the cabin always "wet" (suggests matrix)? If you use the heater (not the air con, with Climatronic use "Econ" mode), park and wait half an hour, do you get drips of water on the ground or undertray (suggests hoses)?

Many thanks. 

Forgot to say that the cabin stays dry, no leak from coolant is visible inside the car. 

 

Heater hoses, are they located behind the dash so one has to rip down the complete dashboard to be able to fix this (if that's where the leak are)? I find it a bit strange that the leak could be in the dashboard given that I can't see any liquid inside the car.

 

Will test your suggestion today or tomorrow. Thanks. And yes I've got the climatronic on my car.

@lhlied - Well, if the cabin stays dry, it's probably the heater hoses (from engine or radiator hoses to top left of bulkhead.

 

The reason for mentioning air con off (Climatronic in Econ mode) was to avoid the red herring where a pool of condensate from the AC chiller forms under the car.

Have been driving around one week now with citydriving, short distances on eco-mode, and no problems no leak. Been heavily raining and around 10 degrees, so not tempting to try to mend in this weather.

 

Yesterday I drove a 80min trip still no leak / problems. (also ecomode).

 

Today I drove a bit more challanging route. Had to cross a mountain to get to another city. 5% decline, When I was getting close to the peak the temperatur started to raise, was able to keep it around 100 but on the very last meters before I stopped it increased up to 110. Checked under the car and yes, leak. Fan was running when I stopped.

 

Opened the reservoir and got of cause much steam and there were boiling liquid. Much liquid got under the car when I opened the bottle, also much pressure was released when I opened the bottle so something works at least.

 

 I tried to drive a little after I just topped it (didn't stop engine), and the engine got back to 90 degrees. Very short driving and increasing temperature (100) and this time warning light of radiator as well. Stopped, killed the engine, placed much liquid back into the car, back on track. On the trip down again it reached 70 degrees. As far as I can remember the car was much better before to stay at 90 whatever up or down.

 

Have noticed that when I drive with the climatronic on auto there is condensation some liquid in the front of the enginebay on a pipe located just next to the radiator. In ecomode no liquid there. 

 

Wonder if my waterpump is good or not.

 

I'll try my best to check your suggestions. Hope the weather keeps okey a while so I'm able to troubleshoot again. Thanks! 

@lhlied - Well, we've established that your car does appear to be over-heating for some reason.

 

You got lucky to not give yourself steam scalds by opening the pressure cap with the engine at over 100C!

 

Things to check - Do both fans run when you give them direct power, rather than relying on them getting power through their thermoswitches? "No" indicates that you have a failed fan; "Yes" indicates that one or both thermoswitches have failed.

 

With the climate in Auto, the pipe with condensation on it is for the air conditioning radiator, and the condensation (sometimes actual frost) is normal behaviour.

This may seem obvious, but have you checked the actual radiator for leaks?

When my insignia was leaking last year, i checked everything, even had it in an opel garage to have the recall replacement of EGR cooler done.. it had been done already.

Pressure tested and checked the head, no issues. After 2weeks i found the pin hole leak in the back side of rad. New radiator and no more leaks..

Again thanks for tips. I've tried to locate the leak from above of the engine, havn't been able to locate it. Don't have equipment to do a pressure-test unless I'm able to use my bike-tools and spare bike tube somehow, or I'll have to buy a new lid with a valve to build up some pressure. ( I guess it shouldn't be too much pressure there) 

 

It has been much rain here lately so havn't had any good chances to troubleshoot yet.

@lhlied - You've reported seeing 110C at the gauge; That's equivalent to 10PSI relative (I can use a pressure cooker, so this is something I just know).

I see from this photo that I took from ebay that its possible to pressure test using the returnpipe to the reservoir. Sounds like I should be able to build something to be able to build up some pressure to then be able to locate the leak. Any clue how much pressure is possible to use max on such test?

Just a thought; could you use a tyre pump with pressure gauge as a measuring device here?

Well. I've received the pressure tester, but clearly I'm not a skilled mechanic.

 

The pressure drops slowly when I used the compressor through the pressure tester that I bought from ebay (see picture above). So yes there is a leak, but to me it sounds like I have to dismantle more to be able to locate this leak. I did hear a small leak near the reservoar, but didn't locate any leaks around the reservoar/refill bottle.

 

I guess I should just try a bit more with the pressure test and try to start to dismantle a bit more to see if I'm then able to locate it. So far I havn't tried to dismantle anything to get a better view. 

 

Today when the winter arrived I noticed that the heater fan that blows up the frontwindow on full speed doesn't push nearly any wind at all out of the output. If I choose to push the air to the passengers straigt (and down), the amout of air that it pushes out is much much more. 

Million thanks to all of you that are helping me to sort this out

 

1 minute ago, lhlied said:

Today when the winter arrived I noticed that the heater fan that blows up the frontwindow on full speed doesn't push nearly any wind at all out of the output. If I choose to push the air to the passengers straigt (and down), the amout of air that it pushes out is much much more

This is a bit "flow of consciousness writing on your part" but lots of low ventilation output issues trace to needing a new pollen filter.

You might be correct there. I did replace the pollen what feels like not that long ago, but time flies, so I guess thats like 2-3 years ago now, so I'll replace that one and hope that the blower at least then gets back in action, and continue the track of the leak. Thanks!

Also i noticed some white traces of liquid on what looks like the aircon part of the pipes to the cabin, but that might be something else. 

@lhlied - Not sure what that is, but losing AC refrigerant won't affect the throughput of the heater, just its ability to cool and/or dry the cabin air.

Can I ask some questions as well? I have the same engine, and sounds like the same issue. I'm losing coolant gradually. I drive 130 miles round trip each day, mostly motorway, and a little bit over 70mph. So, What I've noticed is:

• When I start the car I get a puff of light smoke.
• It's never overheated, as I always carry coolant and top up if the coolant light comes on.
• There is no 'goo' on the oil cap or evident inside the rocker cover
• There are no oily deposits on the coolant tank
• From cold, the coolant tank does not have any bubbles in it.
• When hot, the coolant tank will bubble and gush intermittently.
• I get black furry, fluffy deposits on the underside of the coolant tank cap
• I have replaced the tank and cap.
• I have some months ago put in a leak sealer. It worked briefly....
• The heater performance is strange. Most times it's OK, but all of a sudden it will blow cold air until I fiddle with the air direction settings (like to the face or feet), then will revert to normal.
• I've replaced the cabin filter.

If you have any ideas? I don't mean to hijack lhlied's thread, but we have the same engine and issue it seems!

Edited 29 November, 20187 yr by Skoda_newby

@Skoda_newby - "White smoke", which smells of diesel? If so, that's weak glow plugs, and nothing to do with the cooling system.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, smells of diesel. OK, noted.

In december 2018 I had to give up and buy another car, my wife was very clear on that since I hadn't been able to fix the car for quite a while. So I bought a Octavia 3, 2014 model. Much like the old a stationwagon with a tdi engine, though this time with 2.0 and 4x4. I do like the "new" car, its rather well equipped, it looks like the new car (as expected) though uses a bit more diesel than the old 1.9 non 4x4, but other than that, the new is working great.

 

During the winter in has been hopeless to use the old car. Since the heater is not working, it seems it easily will overheat etc, its not possible to get the moist away from the front window, the car has only been driven a very few days. Just enough to keep the battery high enough to still be able to start the car. 

 

The spring has now arrived and it has been possible to use the car on very short trips, thats basically from and to work. 

 

From time to time I've been thinking to scrap the car, but the car was the first car I bought, and I've had it since 2007. So its a bit sad to give it up after all the work I've put in it.

 

So lately I've been thinking it should be possible to fix it, even though I've spent too much time already on trying to fix it. I just havn't done the correct things.

 

I watched this video the other day, and after testes with my own car, I see that I now have no flow at all (on a cold engine, havn't tried with a warm engine yet), previously I did have some flow, but now its nothing. So I think it just have to be the waterpump that is failing me. 

 

 

Water pump was early one of the things i suspected, I just never though I was capable of doing a waterpump change and or change of the timing belt. Though I've now decided that between the option of scrapping the car and changing the timing belt ( and thus have the risk of permanent damage the engine), I don't see the big downside of giving it a try to see if I can fix the car. The car is anyway near useless in the condition it is in now. So today I'm planning to order the parts to fix this (timing belt kit, fuel filter (its quite a while since the last time that was changed), and pollen filter.

 

I'm planning to do more research before I'll start on the timing belt change, but I did like this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgQKAQ5-Ddw that shows rather well the most (but some could be the non correct way of doing it), except supporting the engine from under and how to jack the engine up, but I'll hopefully solve that.

 

I'll update this thread with my findings and hopefully I'll be able to take it apart (and more important mount it back working again), and I'll have a picture of the failing waterpump that I hope to pull out. I'm rather interested to see the state of that waterpump.  Wish me luck.

Seems not possible to edit post, so I'll update.

On warm engine same pattern, no flow, or near no flow. Some flow on idle / startup, but nearly no flow at all on warm engine with the engine even reved up some. So it looks like a waterpump failure. 

 

Edited 7 April, 20197 yr by lhlied

A question: when changing the waterpump, should one use some sort of lubrication like in the photo below, and if, whats the name of that kind of lubrication?

 

also, I need to do more research, but I liked this video that shows the Pump Timing Checking / Adjusting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk1iLVCUWPU

@lhlied Firstly, I think that is an "instant gasket" compound, not a lubricant.

 

Secondly, if I was using a gasket compound, I'd put it between the rubber O-ring and the mating face, but not over the O-ring.

"Quick" update.

 

I've done my first timing belt change on any car. Well. It took quite a lot of time (and I havn't tuned the diesel pump yet), though in the middle there I became a dad (for the first time in my life, very happy with my little girl), so the car had to wait and just be fixed in the middle when I had time.

 

Anyway I've changed the timing belt, thus also the water pump I suspected, with the result that the car is precisely the same...! So no, clearly I'm not a very skilled mechanic, but I'm happy the car still runs. I used the torque descriptions in the kit I bought and the instructions from ELSA/ETKA. Also I liked this video: 

 

 

 

Though there seems to be a couple of obvious things I should have checked at a much earlier stage. On the drivers side of the engine around where all the temp-sensors are located there are two gaskets ( 5 and 9 below). On my car that area has alway been a disaster. Black and dirty. So I took it apart, and gasket number 5 was broken, luckily I had a spare one, tried to pull things together, still doesn't work but I see there is a leakage on gasket number 9 as well. 

 

So my advise to you, consider to check proper for leaks, change gaskets and check the plastic casing if you have number 7 in a different version in plastic. That might save you heck of a lot of work...

 

Congratulations on joining the Brisky Daddy ranks

 

hope the car is running right again too