touran losing coolant

[angnlee]

Hi i have a vw touran tdi sport 54 plate, have to keep putting coolant in as it seems to be losing it from somewhere but as yet 3 garages cannot find the problem, havehad it checked for obvious head fault but oil seems fine, no smoking from exhaust, car running perfectly apart from coolant loss, garages could not see any leaks and have checked the hoses, have had a diagnostic test and this came back fine, does anyone else have a problem like this or does anyone have any ideas what it could be, i would be very grateful for any suggestions
thanks

[zippytiff]

HI

Did you even find the cause?

I have a 53 plate 2.0Tdi Touran, with what must be a big leak, goes through a VW bottle sized coolant every day !!! it started out of the blue last week (till this point NEVER any leak/topup needed EVER), after a really cold night (it may or may not be connected).

I beleive there is an external leak, as there is a pink drip in front of the front drivers wheel, but the dealer said this was just a rain drain off !?!

I have taken it to a dealer and they did a pressure test and found no problem, they said to expect it to be a cylinder head job £1500+

Yesterday after i had filled the car up with petrol at a garage, i noticed a large pool of again pink coolant on the floor, it had not been raining, so there MUST be an external leak ? and i can see it dripping in front of the drivers front wheel

Anybody any ideas, also does a cracked head or gone head leak externally? i understood this leaked internally?

Thanks in advance

[zippytiff]

just as an update, it turned out to be the aux heater leaking the coolant, so cheapest solution was to bypass....

[wildmountain]

I have a 2005 Touran 2.0 TDI. We do not do high mileages these days so I was suprised when the coolant warning light came on for the first time last autumn, (shortly after the car was serviced by my VW main dealer). I paid for a system pressure test but nothing was found. The warning light has come on twice since and I have topped up with a small amount of water, less than a cupful each time. I was about to book a second pressure test when I spoke to a local garage that also services VWs. We now believe that the blue screw cap on the fluid reservoir was not tightened to the point were the cap 'clicks' into place when the car was serviced. (Fear of over-tightening means that you might not get to the 'click'). I was advised to take the cap off, run the engine until the temperature gauge comes up to normal while turning the heater up to max, (to remove possible air pockets), and then top up the reservoir, (ensuring that the cap was properly tightened). So far so good but if the problem continues the next step will be to replace the reservoir cap, which is also a pressure relief valve, before resorting to anything more expensive.

[wildmountain]

Well!! There is clearly no such thing as a quick and cheap solution! The coolant level is still dropping very gradually and there is still no obvious cause. (The car runs well; no sign of a leak; not smoke on start up). What to do? I love this car. It is still solid and rattle free; versatile and flexible; comfortable and economic, but can I take the risk of a sudden, catastrophic, engine failure at motorway speeds; (with my grandson in the back)? No ... I thought not.

Volkswagen do something! There are so many posts on this issue that it must be something that you know about.

[pluto34]

Not much of a help with your problem but regarding the car itself, i feel the same as you. Had our 2.0 TDi Sport '54' from new and i love it. I`ve started a thread regarding a miss-fire possibly linked with rodent damage to pipework and having to have an injector changed after (in my opinion) a mis-diagnosis. Just developed a problem with the tailgate failing to latch closed. Stripped the mechanism out and found a sticking component that now appears to be ok. Will refit in the morning and post back.
To be honest, apart from that and a door lock at minor cost, the car has been a dream for almost 7 years and i still love driving it like the first day we bought it. Would definately have another. Hope you find a solution to the leak

[wildmountain]

Since raising this issue, I now know the following. Coolant lose is often related to the EGR cooler and the water pump. Also there have been more cases of cylinder head failures than I feel comfortable about. (An early batch I'm told). The pump is a prime suspect as the washers can shrink, especially after very cold weather. Some garages change the pump whenever the cam chain is replaced, (mine does not). Also the under tray catches small drips, so this needs to be removed if the system is pressure tested or a 'nil-return' is probable. I prefer not to think about a cylinder head problem. (Initially my dealer told me that my engine number was not one of those that VW alerted dealers as being at risk; now they seem to be backtracking on that information - Hmmmm! Watson). Anyway, I have now booked the car in for an overnight pressure test. I am prepared to pay for a new EGR cooler and/or water pump. But I will have to think hard about a new cylinerhead. Since the car has been mine from new; has always been driven sensibly and has yet to reach 57,000 miles, I will also have to think hard about buying VW in future.

[wildmountain]

It's the cylinder head!

[kokeilut]

I have been concerned about the same thing and even got it tested once but the garage could not find any leaks. This is how it goes: I top it up to the max, I can drive a thousand miles or so, and then one morning (once a month or every other month) when I start the engine I get the warning light "check coolant / STOP". I open the blue container screw cap and hear "hissing", and at the same time the coolant level rises to the level somewhere in between MIN-MAX. I usually top it up again but adding something like 0.1-0.2 brings it back to MAX.

The garage said they do not suspect the cylinder head. But I am still wondering that where does the coolant disappear, does it leak, evaporate, should the screw cap release the pressure and the level stabilise, etc. Usually the low coolant level takes place on colder mornings and I suspect that somehow the "excess" coolant leaks out when the coolant is hot (thermal expansion) and then on cold morning the level is lower.

[wildmountain]

Being very cynical, I was not prepared to ignore coolant loss and was determined to find the cause, (I am not going to use my grandchildren as crash test dummies!). I hesitated about replacing the cylinder head but really did not feel comfortable about passing off the car on to an unsuspecting young family, (the probable buyers). The work was costed at £2,500 but, because I could prove that I was a VW customer of long-standing and because I made a fuss, VW made a 'goodwill' gesture of approximately 50% of the cost. Now that the work has been done, I love my car again and, when the anger died down, I'm not sure that VW could/would have done more for a six year old car.

The other day, a mate of mine turned up in a Porsche Cayenne. I'd rather have my old bus than one of those, so that says it all I suppose.

So all I would say is don't ignore the symptoms of a problem that could lead to be a catastrophic engine failure, (I have never heard of a small leak not turning into a big one. Sod's law says it will probably happen at 90mph on a busy motorway).