I have a tdi vw golf and it loosin water and coolant but every now and again, not consistently.some times on long drives and then i end up stopping 4 or 5 times in a row and then nothing for nother day. it is very weird. i have been too several different garages and a vw golf garage and no one can figure out where the coolant and water is going? has any one had any similar problems?? or how i can fix this?
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You oil cooler is most probably cracked resulting in the coolant leaking into the engine oil this also turns your coolant a rusty colour.
http://www.eurocarparts.com/oil-cooler-a…
I have just stumbled across this thread, I have the same issue as the poster on my VW Golf. No one could find the fault, I ended up having a prang before Xmas and it had to go into the garage. After thorough testing it was due to the oil cooler being faulty. Im sure the OPs issue would have been the same so top post fella.
Could be a pinhole in one of the hoses. That would not show up on a pressure test necessarily. but should show as a stain on the hose.
Don't worry about the rusty brown color as VW does not have anything that can rust. However, I don't use the pink stuff. I use anti-freeze or the green stuff. And I mix it 40 percent antifreeze to 60 percent water. 50/50 is close enough. Antifreeze is also anti-boil. I am thinking you are basically boiling the coolant(which is basically pink water) out just as you would boil a pot dry. Just because there is color does not mean there is any coolant in it.
Having the proper consistency of coolant also lubricates the water pump seal (like grease) otherwise that will wear out fast and you got to replace the pump to get a good new seal.. Expensive.
Leaking waterpump seal also does not show up on a pressure test.
Whatever the problem is, it needs to go into a garage that knows what they're doing and get sorted before you severely damage the engine through overheating, if you haven't done so already. If it's losing that much water it can't be that difficult to trace where it's going.
For the want of a £20 hose you could kill an engine that would cost a couple of grand to replace.
My Golf radiator was slightly holed through corrosion in the bottom right corner as you look into the open bonnet. The lower hose comes out of the radiator at this point, the hose are like a push fit with a thin metal clip to hold it in place.There is a rubber seal ring on metal part of the hose that pushes into the end tank of the radiator and they are prone to leaking. Its a fairly easy DIY job although you do have to remove the front bumper panel to change the radiator (easy job) You should be able to see either a wet patch or a powdery slightly pink deposit in this vicinity if it is indeed the radiator. Another possibility is the heater matrix. You will usually get a strong smell within the car if that has corroded and is leaking together with condensation on the glass which generally will not evaporate due to the coolant composition. Of course the worst case scenario is a head gasket and the evidence of grey smoke coming from the exhaust. Keep your fingers crossed…..
what you dont say is how you know when you have lost water ..does the temp gauge go up ? ..you could have a sticking thermostat
The Golf and Passat TDIs are well known for corroding radiators, particularly in the bottom corners.
It's very hard to see because both the Golf and Passat have large plastic undertrays that prevent the coolant from leaking straight out onto the road. It lies in the undertray and then gets blown out the back when you drive along at speed. What happens is that you lose coolant and yet there are no immediately obvious signs of it externally.
Get the bonnet open and have a very good look with a bright torch down at the corners of the radiator, and look in through the bumper grilles, and also from underneath.
My Passat had this problem. Sometimes it would lose 10-15mm worth from the expansion tank overnight, other times it would go for a week without losing anything. It turned out to be a leaking radiator.
These engines are not known for head gasket failure so i'd be surprised, and in any case if a water way was leaking into the combustion chamber you'd get pressurisation of the cooling system and overheating as soon as you started the car.
Are you stopping to add coolant? If so its pretty bad.
Coolant leaks can be tested with a pressure tester, a pretty standard thing to have at a shop. If it leaks and you can't see it dripping, hate to say but it may be head gasket and leaking into combustion chamber/cylinder. If this gets bad enough you can bend a rod which means throw engine away. I'd get a good shop to really look at it and test.