Coolant Loss on Passat Pd130

[driftin jo]

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_275417_langId_-1_categoryId_255217

Believe it or not it works, I wouldn't use it on a high performance engine, S2 etc, but for this sort of thing its good.

[s2driveruk]

I tried the same sort of stuff on mine when it was pressurising the coolant earlier in the year - IMO don't waste your money it didn't do anything.

Sounds to me like the HG is failing or a crack in the head which is only appearing once the car is well into its operating temp range. Be worth getting it off and having it x-rayed to check its ok or not. These are the exact same symptoms mine had in Feb this year (apart from paying some obscene amount for my PD injectors as they were in need of a refurb (£720!?!?!). I sold the A6 in August - loved it to bits in all honesty but I felt every £1 of the £2700 i had spent in the spring on the remedial work plus a ton of time without it due to a wierd fueling issue that ended up being injector related. I just lost confidence in it and at 185k miles was only going to start costing even more.

If you want to chat about it - PM me....i was sure it was a £600 job when I said yes (and so was the garage) but it was like a can of worms in the end

[driftin jo]

I tried the same sort of stuff on mine when it was pressurising the coolant earlier in the year - IMO don't waste your money it didn't do anything.

Sounds to me like the HG is failing or a crack in the head which is only appearing once the car is well into its operating temp range. Be worth getting it off and having it x-rayed to check its ok or not. These are the exact same symptoms mine had in Feb this year (apart from paying some obscene amount for my PD injectors as they were in need of a refurb (£720!?!?!). I sold the A6 in August - loved it to bits in all honesty but I felt every £1 of the £2700 i had spent in the spring on the remedial work plus a ton of time without it due to a wierd fueling issue that ended up being injector related. I just lost confidence in it and at 185k miles was only going to start costing even more.

If you want to chat about it - PM me....i was sure it was a £600 job when I said yes (and so was the garage) but it was like a can of worms in the end

When you say 'same sort of thing' that is not the same as saying you have tried it !
This exact stuff was put in a golf tdi and fixed it. Seriously it's only £13 what have you got to loose.
I friend of mine fixed a Volvo with a visible crack in the head with this stuff and that is also still going strong.

[driftin jo]

If I remember correctly you have to flush out the coolant so there is no anti freeze in it before you put it in , if you don't it will not work. Once it has run for a bit you flush the system and refill with coolant / anti freeze.

[s2driveruk]

glad to hear there is a vehicle cured by it. I used a highly equivalent product on the same symptoms and it didnt work. For reference I used this which was well recommended:

http://www.kseal.com/

It didn't work, or even appear to slow the water loss, hence my view that it wasn't worth the time and money I used the same thought that £15 spent on a potential fix was worth the investment (as I'm sure '000s of people do) however I'd love to know the fix % which i suspect would be actually fairly low...

[Fat Audi 80]

Thanks chaps. It ran very hot again last night after a blast up the A34. It must be getting combustion gasses into the water jacket for it overheat that quick and for the cooling system to be constantly pressurised. I am a little skeptical of using a "wonder" product on my passat, even though it is 10 years old, I would worry about doing some other harm to it.

I think I will bite the bullet and ask the garage to take the head off it, and forgo our planned snowboarding holiday this year....

[driftin jo]

Thanks chaps. It ran very hot again last night after a blast up the A34. It must be getting combustion gasses into the water jacket for it overheat that quick and for the cooling system to be constantly pressurised. I am a little skeptical of using a "wonder" product on my passat, even though it is 10 years old, I would worry about doing some other harm to it.

I think I will bite the bullet and ask the garage to take the head off it, and forgo our planned snowboarding holiday this year....

If you had water getting into your oil then I wouldn't recommend using it but in this case
I would give it a try as it may save you a fortune. It is basically just sodium silicate and needs to be in clean water to work, not coolant. Apparently our old wonderful G12 had some sodium silicate in it to seal up small leaks when they started.

[dubmeister]

Can the garage not check for combustion gases in the coolant? Its a very simple test- surely they have the equipment to do so??

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=combustion+leak+detector&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=X1f&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&prmd=imvns&resnum=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1348&bih=619&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=3360893041784155129&sa=X&ei=FRevTvrhD4PNsga5--xX&ved=0CF0Q8wIwAA

Fluid changes colour (mines turns from blue to yellow ) to indicate combustion gases.
A 5 minute test to confirm the fault.

[Fat Audi 80]

Well this sage has almost come to an end.

Believe it or not the garage have had the car for over 6 weeks. The guy that took the head off it was later sacked so once the head was finally back from pressure testing and refurb they could not get the car running. Because the mechanic putting it back together had not taken it apart he suspected operator error for the lack of boost. After another couple of weeks of specialists looking at the car and confirming it was back togther correctly and timed right etc, the injectors were finally diagnosed as faulty and send off for testing.

The injectors were condemned due to heat damage and had to be refurbished. With refurbed injectors and a rebuilt head the car is running properly again. (Or almost)....

It has cost me £2758 just for the above, £1100 of it being 4 refurbed injectors, but I still don't think the car is completely right. (They only charged me 10 hours labout despite throwing over 50 hours into it trying to sort it out)....

It seems to need slightly too much throttle to accelerate and does not quite have the oooomph it had before. I don't know if I am expecting too much having not had it for a while or whether the head needs to bed in the and ECU adjust to the new injectors, but my butt dyno is not convinced.

I am going to give it a few more miles and monitor the fuel consumption to see if it improves. (Only done 50 miles so far).

I am pleased to have it back but gutted by the bill.

Any words of wisdom?

Cheers,

Steve

[simon20vq]

WOW, that was one hell of a bill really feel for your pain! When a diesel goes they go big style! I wonder how much would a second had engine have been off Ebay or a Breakers?

[Fat Audi 80]

Thanks,

Yes, a LOT less I suspect. At least I know the history of this engine, it has all been checked over and the head is completely new now including injectors. I hope have done the right thing, but it is too to change late now....

[diesel des]

Do a boost leak test. If no leak found then look for black smoke. You should have a slight haze of smoke at full throttle. If not then its possible pd 100/115 injectors are fitted not the 130/150 units. They would cause a reduction in power and less smoke.

[Ross]

Gutted for you Steve, that's a frustrating ordeal. Good to see they cut a deal on the labour though, seriously these newer engines could land you for a bill significantly higher than the value of an older car

My Golf PD130 is probably worth £1800 now, if something big goes I think I'd just scrap it after reading such experiences... I was planning to move on in about 3-6 months, leaning to an A6 for the room, but seeing David's costing a few grand over a couple of years makes me wonder why. If it's gonna have such high maintenance costs, may as well buy the RS6 and make those £££'s feel worth something

[spink]

Bring back the old 1990s vag diesels I say

[Fat Audi 80]

I am seriously getting put off these modern high compression high pressure diesels. They are too highly stressed and some of the components are astronomically expensive to replace....

We don't even do that many miles now to justify diesel....