problem with coolant flushing

[STORM 2 0]

I flushed out my system this weekend. First of all I had a heck of a time locating the drain plug and undid the power steering hose accidentally losing half of my reservoir.

Any how i had the rusty coloured coolant problem and flushed out with engine running etc but when I checked the inlet hose of the radiator after the water had run clear, it was still full of rusty coloured fluid!!!

 

So does this mean there is a problem with the thermostat or a blockage in the radiator?

 

cheers

[dr_mat 0]

I suspect you'll find that pretty much every component inside the system has rusty coloured gak on it. I've replaced a top hose, thermostat and housing, auxilliary water pump and they've all come out with rusty brown gak...

[kangaroo 0]

If the water is flowing freely and coming out clear then I wouldn't expect a blockage. Sometimes its difficult to get rid of the rusty brown colour. I recently flushed through the system on my Golf, and the brown kept coming back. It took three flushes before the coolant stayed a clear blue colour... Reading what dr_mat wrote, I suspect the rusty gak was hiding in the components.

 

~Matt.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Odd, shouldn’t be any rusty sediment in a VR. I changed my main water pump last summer and it was amazing in there (you can see the water galleries when you take the pump out) and my G12+ is still bright pink 8 months later.

 

Points to lack of servicing, or too little additve in the past and perhaps a sediment build up in the main and heater radiators.

 

Try a few flushes. Flush both directions of the heater rad and same with the main rad.

 

That should do it…..

[dr_mat 0]

I agree - it definitely points to insufficient additive and prolonged intervals between coolant changes (but then, it's not on the VW service schedule, AFAIK).

Given that it's brown, it's got to be rust, and therefore it's got to come of the big lump of ferrous metal - probably the block. I doubt that it's going to cause too many problems in the long term, but once it's been pumped around a few times it really does seems that it's VERY hard to get rid of completely. I mean, over the last couple of years my coolant system has been flushed around 4 times, and it's still there.

Just flush it a few more times, maybe not straight away, and see if it starts to fade away.

I don't seem to have problems with elevated coolant temps or anything, certainly nothing different from what other people have reported, so I'd be inclined to not worry about it too much.

[Geo 0]

This can be really hard to get rid of. The only thing to do is flush it a few more times, but not straight away. Make sure theres plenty of coolant in the water to prevent any more rust from building up and just flush it when the water goes brown. It'll go away eventually.

[STORM 2 0]

Cheers folks :? :?