Where's me water gone?

[Badger 0]

Whilst having a quick scan over the engine this morning in preperation for a spirited drive over to Rockingham, i noticed that the water level in the expansion tank was a bit short of the min mark, so i topped it up to just over the max.

 

The car drove there and back with no drama's.

 

After leaving the car to cool down for about an hour i checked the water level again and it's dropped to below the min mark!

 

It's a VR6 with just short of 51000 miles and with full VW service history.

 

Should i be worried?

[Jim 1]

Well.. if there are no visible leaks (and make sure you check everywhere!) then it could indicate that your head gasket is on its way out!

 

Have a good check around. Quite possible a gasket on a coolant flange has split a little to allow some out or you have a very small leak from a coolant hose.

 

Alternatively if you still have the old "black" type coolant header tank cap, it could do with getting replaced with the blue version - it could be allowing out some coolant as the black version has / had a design fault in it and has been superseded by the blue.

[adamukcorrado 0]

yeah i would certainly check all hoses and joins throughly, and the joint on top of the rad, and replace expansion tank cap etc before getting too concerned, i would of thought with only 51k on the clock you'd be really unlucky to have head problems yet (although nothings impossible on a rado!).

[Yandards 0]

It might just be a case of the car dumping the excess coolant when running.

 

I would monitor it to see if it goes any furthur or if it stays where it is, if it drops start looking for leaks, if not is may just be the thermal expansion in the system is kicking the excess water out when it gets hot.

 

I take it you are not getting high running temps on the water/oil readings?

 

I would still change the cap for the blue one though (same part number in the dealer they will only supply the blue one) the reason being that the black one has a faulty valve which may prevent the cooling system from pressurising correctly - this will lower the boiling temperature of the fluid in the cooling system causing excessive expansion of the fluid and potential loss.

 

Which may be where your coolant is going..

[dukest 0]

i've noticed the same thing on mine actually but temp guage is showing perfectly normal so i haven't panicked yet.. am going to ask it to be checked over when it goes in for something soon but let us know if you find an obvious culprit!

 

john

[Badger 0]

I had a look at the water level when i got home this evening after giving the car about 40mins to calm down, and the wter level had risen to bang on the MIN level mark.

 

Had another look just now and it's dropped back down to where it was yesterday!

 

The cap is black, so i will be visiting the stealers in the morning for a replacement in Blue and i will let you know if that makes any difference.

[dukest 0]

hmmm, mine is blue so must be something else (on mine at least)!

[dr_mat 0]

Sounds like expansion under pressure to me. One hour cooling after a good thrash in this climate isn't enough to drop the coolant to it's "cold" state, you need at least 8 hours resting before it goes completely cold.

[Badger 0]

Collected a new Blue cap and fitted it today. I've topped the water back up but i've not had chance to go anywhere in it yet to see what happens.

 

While i was at the stealers, one of their mechanics drifted past the car and stopped for a chat. I explained the problem to him so he had a quick look.

 

On the right hand side of the expansion bottle there is a black plastic cover, he removed this and showed me where the water escapes if the pressure in the bottle becomes to great. He then pointed to the engine mount thats more or less under the expansion bottle and there was visable signs of water in and around the mount. He reckons that this is the big give away if the expansion bottle is loseing water.

 

Now he seems to think that the nasty Black cap was at fault, causing the bottle to over flow. So hopefully the Blue cap will prevent this.

 

I will let you know soon.

 

The Blue cap was £6.83 including the vat.

[Badger 0]

Well it's been a couple of days now and although i've not really been anywhere, all looks well in the expansion tank.

 

The water seems to be holding a steady level when i check it after it has cooled down for a couple of hours.

 

Hope to give it some legs up the motorway this weekend as i've heard of a possible Corrado spotting in a breakers yard so i'll see what happens then.

 

Thanks for all your advice and help in solving this matter.

[Yandards 0]

Nice one, anyone with a black cap get it changed!

[DIGGER B 0]

ive got excactly the same problem , so going to the stealers tmoz to get me blue cap......i luv CF . :D

[belfastfumanchu 0]

Thread Ressurection

 

I've got same prob now - going to get a blue cap and hopefully it will do the trick.

[jack 0]

I had the same problem with mine a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't see a leak any where. I got a mechanic to do a pressure check on the car, turned out the radiator was leaking through the mesh part. The leak couldn't be spotted as the water was coming out as steam. Maybe worth getting a pressure check, if theres a leak any where else it will show.