Hello all

 

I have a 63 plate Octavia 2.0 TDI. I've had it just over a year now and was very happy with it.

 

It recently started using a lot of water. I took it to a local garage. They pressure tested and flushed everything and put fresh coolant in. They noticed radwell had been used in the past (not by me). No leaks were found and they said keep an eye on things. 

 

Its still using water and it was back at the garage today but again, they found nothing. I looked through this thread: 

but the garage said they would have noticed water pump issues during the pressure test. They said the next step would be fault finding but could cost a lot of money.

 

Any suggestions? Thank you

If the garage has the right equipment they can tell if the water pump is working correctly or not, it will flag up if it's activating the moving sleeve.

Has your car overheated at all?  If the coolant is getting hotter than normal, if it is leaking from somewhere it would evaporate/dry up pretty quickly so might not leave much of a leak.

My pump was replaced on Friday as my car overheated several times :(

Water pump failure causes overheating and not coolant loss. You may have a water pump issue though if rad weld has been used! Obviously bthe car must have had issues before if rad weld was used. Possibly an internal leak?

I can smell burning sometimes but it's never overheated. It does warm up very quickly though. I have to keep topping it up because sometimes the coolant warning light comes on. 

 

Glad yours is sorted out

27 minutes ago, jake000 said:

No leaks were found and they said keep an eye on things. 

 

Its still using water and it was back at the garage today but again, they found nothing. I looked through this thread: 

but the garage said they would have noticed water pump issues during the pressure test. They said the next step would be fault finding but could cost a lot of money.

 

Any suggestions? Thank you

 

I've seen radiators with slight weeps that haven't shown up with a pressure test but the surrounding area stains pink / purple slightly. Some leaks need heat / expansion to show up.

 

Re water pump - these can fail in strange ways that don't always show up as predicted eg only when hot (not just under pressure) or sometimes they leak when the shaft centralises rotating at speed or sometimes the impeller stops pumping and water is lost from localised overheating. When are you due a cambelt? Can you bring forward a bit and change along with the water pump?
 

The gauge has never gone past the normal range. Just gets there pretty quick. I have no idea what it is and I'm worried about the cost involved to fault find the problem. 

I don't think the cambelt has been changed. There's 41k miles on it. To test what's been mentioned, how much do you think it would cost? I have an extended warranty but still need to pay for the initial investigation. Any garage recommendations in the Darlington area?

 

Thanks for the replies everyone

4 minutes ago, jake000 said:

The gauge has never gone past the normal range. Just gets there pretty quick. I have no idea what it is and I'm worried about the cost involved to fault find the problem. 

 

With this and the smell mentioned above - I'd suspect the impeller. Just treat as a new cambelt /water pump job. I think the cambelt is due at 5 years anyway - nothing to loose just doing it.

 

 

Edited 3 December, 20187 yr by bigjohn

27 minutes ago, VAGGAZ said:

Water pump failure causes overheating and not coolant loss. You may have a water pump issue though if rad weld has been used! Obviously bthe car must have had issues before if rad weld was used. Possibly an internal leak?

Mine caused both - the overheating caused the silica bag in the coolant bottle to split, and then it caused that silica gunk to get into the cooling system and block it.
Whether it was directly from the overheating or the blockage I'm not sure, but it definitely caused coolant loss.

As stated the cambelt will be about due anyway and I would definitely get the water pump changed at the same time, as it seems to be of the vintage which will fail before too long in any case.

38 minutes ago, jake000 said:

I can smell burning sometimes but it's never overheated. It does warm up very quickly though. I have to keep topping it up because sometimes the coolant warning light comes on. 

 

Glad yours is sorted out

 

Id have thought he burning smell would more than likely be  the DPF doing a regen.

 

Ive got a slight water useage issue all though I can occasionally smell coolant.  I'll need to investigate more but it's due a cambelt in 10k so would have the pump done then.

32 minutes ago, DavidY said:

Mine caused both - the overheating caused the silica bag in the coolant bottle to split, and then it caused that silica gunk to get into the cooling system and block it.
Whether it was directly from the overheating or the blockage I'm not sure, but it definitely caused coolant loss.

As stated the cambelt will be about due anyway and I would definitely get the water pump changed at the same time, as it seems to be of the vintage which will fail before too long in any case.

Yeh I can see that causing an issue! I was just a bit concerned about the rad weld stuff because this can cause more problems like blocking heater matrix etc

13 minutes ago, VAGGAZ said:

Yeh I can see that causing an issue! I was just a bit concerned about the rad weld stuff because this can cause more problems like blocking heater matrix etc

 

The silica gunk in mine did exactly that! (Blocked the heater matrix, but also block the cooling system in general I think.)
I'd also wonder if in the OP's case it was definitely Rad weld and not the gunk which the coolant bottle seems to supply?

What's an impeller? I'm not sure if the smell is the dpf or due to the coolant. It's worth getting the cambelt and water pump done regardless? How much does this usually cost?

 

They said it was rad weld due to the colour of the water. Shiny/ silvery. I also have problems with the heating. This could be as mentioned, due to the rad weld. Has the rad weld really screwed up the car?

 

Thanks again everyone

8 hours ago, jake000 said:

What's an impeller? I'm not sure if the smell is the dpf or due to the coolant. It's worth getting the cambelt and water pump done regardless? How much does this usually cost?

 

They said it was rad weld due to the colour of the water. Shiny/ silvery. I also have problems with the heating. This could be as mentioned, due to the rad weld. Has the rad weld really screwed up the car?

 

Thanks again everyone

 

As mentioned it could be the silicon which does contaminated the coolant. Is the coolant the tank dirty? Matrix sounds like it maybe partly blocked, might be able to flush it through. 

The impeller is basically what circulates the coolant and is part of the water pump. Not sure about price £300-400?

 

On 04/12/2018 at 07:48, VAGGAZ said:

 

As mentioned it could be the silicon which does contaminated the coolant. Is the coolant the tank dirty? Matrix sounds like it maybe partly blocked, might be able to flush it through. 

The impeller is basically what circulates the coolant and is part of the water pump. Not sure about price £300-400?

Thank you

 

The coolant tank was filthy but they cleaned it all through and it's clean now.

 

Earlier today, I drove about 35 miles. Mostly on the motorway at 70. I stopped for 1hr and 40 mins. I then drove back home but after about 25 miles, the coolant warning light came on. When I stopped, I put water in but I could visible see it going down from between min and max, to empty. I looked under the car and it was leaking straight back out. I will attach a picture because it looked like it was coming from more than one place (unless dripping along?)

 

It was mentioned above that it might only leak when warm.

 

Thanks for the help

 

The biggest patch is from below the coolant tank. 

If you’ve got an actual leak a garage should be able to find out where from. Now it’s visibly leaking they should easily trace it. I’d be inclined to use a VW group specialist garage who will be aware of the water pump and coolant tank silicone issues.

I recently had a similar problem on a different make car where there was a slight split in a rubber pipe. Could be anything though. 

Edited 9 December, 20187 yr by classic

10 hours ago, jake000 said:

 

Thank you

 

The coolant tank was filthy but they cleaned it all through and it's clean now.

 

Earlier today, I drove about 35 miles. Mostly on the motorway at 70. I stopped for 1hr and 40 mins. I then drove back home but after about 25 miles, the coolant warning light came on. When I stopped, I put water in but I could visible see it going down from between min and max, to empty. I looked under the car and it was leaking straight back out. I will attach a picture because it looked like it was coming from more than one place (unless dripping along?)

 

It was mentioned above that it might only leak when warm.

 

Thanks for the help

 

Have you now had the work done? Probably leaking out of coolant tank overflow due to over heating or coolant tank split?

Edited 9 December, 20187 yr by VAGGAZ

I will try and take it a VW or Skoda garage tomorrow.

 

I haven't had any work done yet. Do you mean there might not be a leak and it's just overflowing due to heat? Seems like a lot of water just for overflowing. I'm going to add some water to it now it's cold again and see if it leaks or overflows. 

 

Thank you

Just been out to it and as I poured the water in, I could visible see some of it dripping out the bottom. The car hasn't been started today. Not sure if the water is running down something and going across but to the right of the coolant tank, at the bottom of the car, I could see a build up of the water.

Get it booked in ASAP.

 

If water is now visibly running from underneath the car then take it back to the garage that did the pressure test and ask them how they managed to miss the leak the first time.

Just lifted the coolant tank out slightly and it's very wet around the hose on the bottom of the coolant tank. It also looked like some of the silicon around it has gone.

 

I would take it back but the last time I took it there, they seemed like they didn't want it and when I picked it up they told me to take it to a Skoda specialist. 

3 hours ago, jake000 said:

I would take it back but the last time I took it there, they seemed like they didn't want it and when I picked it up they told me to take it to a Skoda specialist. 

Seems like a rubbish garage if they can't even find and fix what appears to be a simple coolant leak.

Yep. I won't be going back. I'll pop into my local Skoda garage and get it booked in. The car doesn't appear to hold any water now. Just floods straight out. 

 

Thanks for all the help everyone