So I took a 400 km trip the other day and since it's still winter I had to use the heater and my ventilation set to 2. What I noticed is that on the windshield there was some sort of fog or grease that spreaded on all windows eventually, on the inside of the car. From some research I did this might be because the heater radiator is punctured and coolant gets sprayed inside the ventilation system so I would assume I will have to drain the coolant and replace the heater. The other issue is that even though my ventilation system is turned OFF, if the temperature is set to 18 degrees really cold air still comes in (especially when cruising at 90 km/h) on the other hand, If I set the temperature to 26 hot air comes in. What I also noticed is that a moisty/moldy smell comes in the first few minutes when I turn the ventilation on.

 

My two questions are:

- would it be possible to drain the coolant by using some sort of hose/tube so I don't have to raise the car, remove the undertray etc.? Has anyone tried that? 

- what would be a possible solution for the ventilation to fully turn off so air doesn't get inside the car even though the ventilation button is set to 0?

 

Thank you! 

Use the recirculation button to stop fresh air coming into the car.

 

You don't have to completely drain the cooling system to replace the heater matrix because the heater is the highest point in the system so you can just drain the tank to lower the coolant level enough.

Edited 13 March, 20224 yr by sepulchrave

12 minutes ago, Rotarski said:

the heater radiator is punctured

This sounds like a worst case scenario to me. Try cleaning the insides of the windows with some sort of a lint free duster.

Thank you! Yes, that's what I did, having the recirculation button on stopped the air from coming in, but is that normal? Maybe I didn't fully understood how the ventilation system works?

The heater is right behind the central console, inside the car, right? Judging by that, the tank is a tad higher than the heater so I would still have to drain quite the amount of fluid. I don't think this was ever changed so maybe it's a good idea to change the most of it if I decide to change the heater.

1 minute ago, KenONeill said:

This sounds like a worst case scenario to me. Try cleaning the insides of the windows with some sort of a lint free duster.

I did cleaned the windows with the same windshield liquid I use on the outside and that did the trick, for now. I managed to get home safe and I'm now trying to figure out what's the solution to completely fix it.

Just now, Rotarski said:

I did cleaned the windows with the same windshield liquid I use on the outside and that did the trick, for now. I managed to get home safe and I'm now trying to figure out what's the solution to completely fix it.

 

Start by cleaning out the scuttle and changing the cabin filter.

3 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

Start by cleaning out the scuttle and changing the cabin filter.

Sorry, scuttle is a new term for me, are you referring to the area where the windshield wipers are located (that's what google showed me)?

Now that you mentioned scuttle, I just realized that my wipers are no longer working, from the same day

Edited 13 March, 20224 yr by Rotarski

Loads of stuff is higher than the heater matrix, the whole engine head for a start.  If you park on a slope with the front of the car facing downhill, then disconnect the heater hoses at the firewall in the engine bay, most of the coolant will come out of the heater I think, as well as most of what's in the engine, so make sure you have plenty to refill with.  Don't let any animals near any spilt fluid if you aren't able to catch it.

7 minutes ago, Pete_Ex-Wino said:

Loads of stuff is higher than the heater matrix, the whole engine head for a start.  If you park on a slope with the front of the car facing downhill, then disconnect the heater hoses at the firewall in the engine bay, most of the coolant will come out of the heater I think, as well as most of what's in the engine, so make sure you have plenty to refill with.  Don't let any animals near any spilt fluid if you aren't able to catch it.

That was the main reason I wanted to use the drain so I don't spill the coolant all over the place. I want to act responsibly and properly drain and dispose it 

You'll spill some however you do it, but if you can catch what comes out of the disconnected hoses with a big oil drain tray or similar, you shouldn't make too much mess.

This is what I used to get the coolant out of my Touareg https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223385433390?hash=item3402cf352e:g:u2MAAOSwxL1cYj97  also use it for oil changes 

56 minutes ago, Pete_Ex-Wino said:

Loads of stuff is higher than the heater matrix, the whole engine head for a start.  If you park on a slope with the front of the car facing downhill, then disconnect the heater hoses at the firewall in the engine bay, most of the coolant will come out of the heater I think, as well as most of what's in the engine, so make sure you have plenty to refill with.  Don't let any animals near any spilt fluid if you aren't able to catch it.

 

You'd be surprised, most of what you can see of the head is cams and valve train, the water jacket is really only in the bottom 50mm next to the block deck, the matrix is higher which is why at the first sign of air or gas in the cooling system your heater stops working.

Have a careful look at your car.

On ours the entire head is higher than the matrix connections. And the matrix is horizontal behind the connections.

12 minutes ago, Pete_Ex-Wino said:

Have a careful look at your car.

On ours the entire head is higher than the matrix connections. And the matrix is horizontal behind the connections.

 

There's no room under the bonnet on mine because the 2.0 has the inlet runners on top of the head as well, it's really tight under there, I recall my 1.4 16V had a very deep head because the cams were close together.

I'm back with a late update on the issue presented initially in the thread. After further investigating the issue and after finding a small coolant puddle underneath the car, it seemed that the engine radiator was actually punctured. I managed to replace both the heater and the engine radiator but I have to admit, I felt I was in way over my head when I saw the hole front of the car disassembled (sorry for the blurred picture). It took me around 10 hours during the week-end to have everything done and that's without the time spent researching and getting the right tools for the task. I did had some issues with the radiator support as it was previously smashed in an accident and I had to play around with the parts fitment so it's somewhat decent. After a few km everything seems to be in order and I noticed no leaks so far.

1 hour ago, Rotarski said:

I felt I was in way over my head when I saw the hole front of the car disassembled

Well done indeed for keeping on and getting the job done.

I guess the A/C was already empty? If not it is now.

You can rotate the front off the car without disconnecting the A/C pipework from the condenser so that you get the same access without  opening the refrigerant circuit.

 

 

Well done for fixing it all though!

 

Edited 6 April, 20224 yr by Pete_Ex-Wino

Thank you both! Hopefully it will last, this is the first time I'm getting something like this done and I have zero mechanical knowledge so...yeah, this is a real accomplishment.

Indeed, I have no AC in the car, I tried making a refill a while back as it was empty (probably leaking from somewhere) but it seemed that the system was clogged as only a very small amount managed to get into the circuit before the refill machine stopped. I didn't want to spend any money on troubleshooting and fixing the issue as it can get very expensive so I decided to not have A/C in the car. I'm now enjoying the breeze with the windows wide open :))

Edited 6 April, 20224 yr by Rotarski