njc021073 Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Just to let you all know that my problem with dissapearing coolant has been sorted. When I first got my car a couple of years ago it was loosing half a litre of coolant every 3000 miles. I took it into VW (Vindis Cambridge) on a couple of occasions and they pressure tested it, looked for leaks (residue) and found nothing. They suggested it was the head gasket on the way out. I take the car to Germany 3 times a year at speed, and this did not seem to increase coolant use, so I was dubious about a gasket problem. Another strange thing happening at the same time was the the coolant temp gauge was rising normally to 90 degrees, but then it would randomly drop down instantaneously to 0, go back up, drop down and stabalise again at 90. I mentioned this to VW and they said it was probably an independant problem with the gauge or sensor. Anyway, after lots of research I found a thread about dodgy Passat radiators and mentioned this to VW at the next service (130k). They denied all knowledge of problems with Passat TDI rads, but phoned me back a couple of hours later and said they had found a "very small leak" from the rad. Since replacing 4000 miles ago (and a high speed trip to Germany) both the coolant loss and temp gauge problem has gone (touch wood). Can anyone think why a rad leak would affect the temp reading. Could it be to do with air bubbles getting into the system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnalu Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Passat's have dodgey radiators? Is there any part of the car that isn't dodgey???? The temperature gauge reading may be unrelated, perhaps due to a bad coolant temp sender - another dodgey Passat component! V cheap to fix (at least on the petrol models). A VAG com should find various temperature reading related fault codes in your car's ECU memory if the sender is duff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njc021073 Posted March 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Strange thing is that ever since the radiator was replaced (4000m ago) the gauge has been fine again????? One day I will understand cars fully Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pugboy Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 My car loses coolant as well. Only about half a litre every month or two. I think I have a little hole in the rad as I have seen a dark patch under the car a couple of times. I dont think its worth spending hundreds on replacing it yet though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastit130 Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Apparently they go on the offside lower corner - mine did too. Yes it's a couple of hundred quid but I figured I'd rather get it done than keep worrying about it letting go completely and being more grief. Waiting for the AA on the M4 at 1am when it's -2 doesn't appeal. No coolant = no heater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durrsaku Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Yes it would have to be the bubbles. My advice to anyone would be to sort it out as soon as possible as this may lead to other problems. and ultimately to a head gasket damage or even engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pugboy Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Long term mine will need replacing. Its going in for a service next month so I'm going to see if they notice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njc021073 Posted March 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Mine was also not too bad, but I had it done for safetys sake, as I didn't want to risk it rupturing suddenly and causing head damage. VW actually only charged 178 quid fitted (as part of the service) which wasn't too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njc021073 Posted March 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 The other thing to note is that I had an ongoing issue with this for a couple of years, in which time it went in for a couple of services (with the coolant loss being specifically investigated) and they didn't come up with the radiator problem. Just before the 3rd service I had done I did some research on the net, found out about radiator problems with Passats and told them. They completely denied all knowledge of problems with the radiator and only when I insisted they take a close look at it did they find a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pingpongpo Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 The father in law has just had his radiator replaced as it kept losing fluid on an '04 plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asta Posted March 22, 2006 Report Share Posted March 22, 2006 yeah mine had the radiator replaced before i got it. must be a common thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durrsaku Posted March 22, 2006 Report Share Posted March 22, 2006 Looking at the cars print out history it did have it's radiator changed too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajnabi Posted March 23, 2006 Report Share Posted March 23, 2006 My radiator has quite a big leak too. Anyone know how much a new radiator costs from VW. Any others sources? Maybe we should do a group buy!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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