Help please! I have a W reg 115bhp gt tdi 90k which I have owned from 9 months old, so I know its never had any previous problems or engine work. It seems to be losing coolant, mainly when driving it hard or a motorway run. Its been to the garage for a pressure test, but no leak was found. The only place I have found a leak is under the expasion tank, which I have replaced but it seems coolant is leaking from the overflow moulded to the tank. There is no smoke from the exhaust or oil mixing gunge. Also tried some rad weld. Any ideas why coolant would leak from the expansion tank? Cheers.
Yeah that got changed aswell. I just dried all the water around the tank, I'm going to re check it tomorrow to see if I can see anything. Also topped the coolant to max to see how much I lose.
I have driven about 20 miles, local driving, and the coolant has gone down to the minimum mark. Any ideas?
maybe the tank itself is faulty? or perhaps a slight hg leak which is pressurising the coolant and forcing the tank cap pressure valve to open. the radiator is also a prime suspect, often tricky to spot a leak on those on the more modern cars as its all covered up with shrouds and other gubbins
I've asked the garage to do another press test to make sure no leaks are visable, also asked them to remove the bumper so its easier to spot a rad leak.
Garage reckon its the headgasket, but im going to get a 2nd opinion. May get a block test or something.
With have this with some of the Volvo engines we have and that is the same points to the head gasket try the block tester might show up
My mates tdi 115 used a lot of water, about a header tank a day. No smoke, no leaks and no pressurization in the cooling system whatsoever. Took the head off to replace the gasket and found a lovely big crack along the line of the injectors.
The heads on the diesel cars are a bit more prone to cracking than petrol ones, as they're under a lot more stress. I'd think you should get a block tester kit that checks for combustion gas in the coolant tank... or just stick your nose in there (when it's cold) and have a sniff.
Im having problems finding a local garage with the test gear! They look at me with blank faces when I ask for a block test, trying some more soon.
Update: I finally found a garage to do a block test (the blue fluid) this turned out negative to exhaust gasses in the coolant system, so hopefully the head gasket and blocks are fine. Also noticed when i take the expansion cap off when car is cold, a small amont of pressure is lost. Any ideas on what else I could check?
Have a look back through some older posts on here, quite a few head/gasket problems on the 115bhp model, very little if anything on the newer ones
the later ones have a modified gasket and dont fail as much and this is gasket you now get for the 115bhp engine yes it could still be the head gasket it can be hit or miss with Diesel engines sometimes when you take the cap of the header tank how much dose the water move up as mine has started to push the coolent down under the pressure in the system it has not lost any but it pushed it below the min take the cap off and it returns to the max i topped it up a bit to keep it on the max and am going to keep a good eye on it till it start using water or starts overheating may do a test just to see if it show it up my thinking is its the start of the gasket going or its drawing air in somewhere and the heater matrix is started to smell of coolent i should get that changed in a week or two it never losses the pressure ever that is the strange thing good luck with yours
I've got a 03 seat ibiza 130 tdi. Had a leak that got worse with time, finally traced it to the two ali pipes that go into the bulkhead for the heater matrix. The coolant was leaking down into the wadding / padding that covers the bulkhead and dripping off the subframe in a completely different spot. It was due to a rubber washer that is supposed to seal the ali pipes but had become warn and chaffed. Garage quoted me 450 for dash out and a new matrix, I fixed it for 59p and a grazed knuckle. Its defiantly worth running the car up to temp and getting it on a ramp, all kinds will show up when its warm and running a pressurized system!
When the car is cold the water level in exp tankrises from around the min mark to 1/4 way to max. When it is warm it rises from around the min mark to just over the max. Garage have had the car running on ramps but no luck seeing the leak. Im going to put a bag around the expansion tank to see if it fills up with the same amount of coolant loss i have.
I have found out of the 0.4L of coolant i have to top up with, 0.1L is in the bag. Also found after a mate was driving behind me on the motorway, that water is coming out of the exhaust as he said his window was getting sprayed like i was using my windscreen washer jets. But only at high engine revs. Any ideas?
