It was about -4 yesterday morning when I went to start - I (unwisely, but the windows were frozen solid and I needed the help of the heaters to defrost them as the missus was going to be late for work) left the engine running for maybe five or so minutes while I furiously scraped the windows. When I got into the car, the 'coolant' light was flashing. Which I thought a bit odd. I frantically leafed through the manual, but nothing seemed to advise me, so I popped the hood open and looked at the coolant reservoir. It seemed fine, and I bounced the car and the liquid sloshed.

I nervously drove off, and as normal the temperature gauge rose to the normal point - but the light remained flashing. It was irritating, so at the next traffic lights I switched off and restarted the engine - and it was gone.

What was it? Frozen coolant? Just really cold coolant?

It's a fault with the coolant reservoir which seems to only show in very cold temperatures. The solution is to replace the tank which is what both I, and a colleague who also has an Octavia did last week. The cost of the tank with the sensor built in was £10.02 including vat from Skoda. Fitting time was about 10-15 minutes in the freezing cold weather :P

If you do a search you will find a fair few threads on this, it seems to be very common.

Ah, that's all - that's a relief. I was worried that maybe something somewhere had frozen, but reasoned (perhaps incorrectly) that the engine's heat would melt it before it had a problem.

On my next visit to my local dealer (I have another outstanding but minor issue) I'll see if I can get it sorted.

Cheers!

Happened to me this morning.... not the coldest morning this week but at -2 it came on. Restarted and it went awat, coolant was ok as well:confused:

Phil

I have exactly the same thing with mine at temperatures around freezing. Dealer reckons it happens a lot too, but didn't say what the fault was due to. Interesting that it is a fault with the tank sensor and cheap to fix. I think I can live with it for the mean time... turning off and on sorts it out.

as i found on a previous post that this is comon, i rang my local stealer and he said that he had never heard of it and said to me that it is not a fault with the sensor. it is due to the cold weather that the water level drops a tad, below the recomended level and there for sets off the low coolant warning. so as he instructed i topped it up. i now beleive that it is way above the max mark and yet it still does it. as you found out below freezing. now i too will be replacing the coolant tank in the very near future.

any one got the part number? saves the stealer trying to argue with me!!

just a thought, but has any body had a problem with a 'replaced coolant tank' yet?

did they sort out the fault with the replacement tanks?

Your dealer is wrong. Let him know, politely, so that he can better help the other customers of his who will have the same fault.

But before you do that, remove some coolant so that it's below the "max" mark to avoid problems when the system is up to pressure.

Happy Christmas, Mr W.

Yep andyrew, your dealer is clearly a tool. I'm sorry I don't have a part number but I checked my level and it was fine. Fault vanished after changing the bottle and have not had any warnings since! My dealer tried arguing that for £10 there wouldn't be a sensor in the bottle but I told him I was happy to take the risk :P

Try rubbing the two metal prongs just inside the filler cap - it's happened twice to me now and both times this has fixed it. - the metal prongs seem to get covered in a layer of air bubbles(?) and rubbing them off seems to work!

Try rubbing the two metal prongs just inside the filler cap - it's happened twice to me now and both times this has fixed it. - the metal prongs seem to get covered in a layer of air bubbles(?) and rubbing them off seems to work!

That's exactly what my dealer advised when I took my car in the other day after the warning light/beep scared the be-jesus out of me. He said that it does happen from time to time, so to use a small screwdriver to scrape the prongs.

My light has been comming on with cold starts (engine cold) for the past year. No signs of any problems so kept on going.

After reading your threads i tapped the two bars in the header tank to releace the bubbles. No problems for 2 months now.

Just the glow plug light to look at now???

It happens on my TDi (90) as well in the cold weather (it is about +5c when I get in the car in the morning). I get the loud bleeping (like when you run low on fuel) and the coolant light flashes for about a minute then all calms down and the light goes out. All my coolant levels are fine. It won't do it in the summer mind...

Add me to the list. Luckily I drive by my dealership every morning and evening to and from work and dropped into them the first time it happened. The explanation I got was that in very low temperatures the coolant itself contracts and that's why the warning comes on, the car thinks there's less than what there is and if I topped it up with a small bit of water I shouldn't get it anymore. Make of that what you will but since I topped it up slightly I never had the warning light come on since in cold weather.

Add me to the list, every now and then the temperature warning light flashes along with the beep sound. All levels are perfect and the problem seems to go away if I switch off the engine then start it back up again.

It also happens to my son's 2000 Audi S3 1.8T - which looks as if it has the same desing of coolant reservoir as my 4X4.

I suggest you try what I said earlier - it does seem to work

mine has the orange dash light with a picture of the engine on, when the dealer read the fault it came up as a coolant temp high problem, light wont go off though unless the code is cleared by them.

I've had the coolant warning alarm coming on in cold weather for the last few weeks, rubbing the two prongs inside the tank has done the job - cheers guys, no more anoying beeps at half 6 in the morning

Add me to the list, frightened me to death when it happened.

Checked the manual, checked the reservoir level, OK, turned off engine, turned back on, warning light gone out.

Will check the contacts tomoroow to lean them.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Thats what Briskodians are for.

Try rubbing the two metal prongs just inside the filler cap - it's happened twice to me now and both times this has fixed it. - the metal prongs seem to get covered in a layer of air bubbles(?) and rubbing them off seems to work!

I finally got round to it at the weekend (the project Golf GTi has now been sold), the car bleeped at me every morning and every evening and now the prongs had been rubbed with a screwdriver it hasn't bleeped since! I might still take the stealers advice and change the G12, it has been in there since 1999!

Thank you to everybody that's posted here. When the light and the alarm came on pound signs flashed in front of my eyes. I'm really pleased that it is a common fault and so simple to fix. These forums are really useful!!

Add me to the list, and to the petition claiming for a recall :angry

the stealer said he did not know what it was and advised to come in. After 5 minutes talking he added that it could be the sender playing up. The manual mentions that should this happens it would mean a high temp. So obviously a low temperature triggering the alert was an "unforeseen software functionality".

I will be scraping my prongs very shortly ;-)

And yes thanks for your posts.