Foreign body in coolant reservoir?

[Pooroldcodger]

Hello. This is my first post so please don't shout at me if I do something wrong!

I have a 16 plate Superb 2.0 tdi SE L Executive estate which has done about 23k miles.

I have owned it for nearly 2 years having bought it when it was on just 8k miles, from a VW main dealership. I am really pleased with it overall.

I bought a 1 year extension to the standard warranty, which expered on 3rd March

It was serviced last year by that main dealer. Coolant was checked in the service.

I decided this year to have it serviced by a specialist VAG independent near me who seen to have a good reputation.

On collecting the car on 6th March from service they asked me to have a look with them in the coolant reservoir. It looks a bit like thin tomato soup with grains in it. They asked me if I have ever added anything to the coolant, to which I answered "no".

They mentioned a phenomenon of the silica bag (and the reservoir does indeed say "Mit Silikat") and that there have been reports of these bags failing and depositing the silica into the coolant.

They suggested it should be flushed to avoid clogging the system and in partiular the heater matrix.

I am happy to have this done, but slightly hesistant about whether this is something that I should be referring to Skoda, as even though the car is out of warranty (by 3 days), if the heater matrix has to be replavced it would be a big and expensive job, which I would try to argue with Skoda /warranty provider about. I was wondering if anybody else has come across this, and any advice you could give?

Many thanks.

[Bap33]

Hi,

I don't have this problem on mine (MY17 / 43500 km). 

If yours is only 23000 miles / MY16, I would definitely ask for Skoda service to take part to the "repair", since your car has been overhauled all the time by a Skoda dealer (as far as I understand) and you had subscribed a warranty extension which expired only few days ago.

When one look at the color of your coolant, it definitely did not happen in the very minute after your warranty had expired... At least they should do something. But will they 🤔 ?

At least, it's worth a try!  

[Breezy_Pete]

If you do a search on here for 'silikat' you'll find lots of discussion. 

General feeling is, I believe, get rid of the stuff.

[Pooroldcodger]

The warranty provider (safe in the knowledge that my warranty ran out last week!) told me that this is a known VAG issue and that I should speak to the garage it was bought from. They said they could book it in only in 3 weeks time!

Or I should get it receovered on a breakdown truck and they would then investigate it sooner.

So I then spoke to another garage (Lookers Skoda) who said they couldn't recommend that I drive it in.

The first garage and the warranty providfer both said that there may be grounds to speak to Skoda UK customer services with a view to getting some goodwill repair / contribution.

Not sure what to do next!