Coolant question

BlueDragon

I brought my car in for a service just over a month ago when a warning light came up it was this one.






The garage said they topped up all the coolant and other fluids so car shuld be ok today i was driving and the warning light came up again i cheaked and there is no coolant in it so i added water to it just a minute ago will this be ok for a few days until i am able to buy coolant?
and what could of caused this? should i be conserned about it,Also there was no water in the windscreen washers
p.s. my car is a 99 audi a4

KateF

This kept happening my car. There may be a small leak somewhere in it and the coolant is escaping bit by bit. If you keep topping it up it should form a seal itself and be grand.
Was there absolutely no coolant in it when you checked? Cause if so, then had the warning light been on for a good while? Water is ok and better than nothing if you have no coolant at hand, but I wouldn't drive around on it for a few days with just water though. Get some coolant as soon as you can. It acts as an antifreeze too so in this weather we've been having its probably something you need ya know. Maybe I'm being really slow here, but what does having no water in windscreen wipers have to do with it? Just put some water in?

BlueDragon

Thanks for the advice
How will it seal its self?
It only came on today because it started beeping and flashing i would of noticed it before today,
Ya there was no coolant in it at all.
Is there any place that i could buy it at lets say 10pm 2omorrow night because ill be working untill then eg petrol stations or what not?

KateF

BlueDragon wrote: »

Thanks for the advice
How will it seal its self?
It only came on today because it started beeping and flashing i would of noticed it before today,
Ya there was no coolant in it at all.
Is there any place that i could buy it at lets say 10pm 2omorrow night because ill be working untill then eg petrol stations or what not?

I've seen it in Tesco before. You could try there.
Well, my Dads a mechanic, he says the heat of it or the chemicals in it or something like that (was a year ago, and when he gets all technical about it I kind of zone out subconsciously) forms a natural seal over whatever tiny hole is in it. But if yours was empty when the light came on I'm thinking it might be worse than mine is. Because when mine comes on, its just getting a bit low, it wouldn't be empty when I open it ya know? So that mightn't be your problem at all. Maybe get it checked out if you can, or maybe someone on here will know more what they're talking about than me.

BlueDragon

Ok thanks katef ill go to tescos after work tomorrow and see if they have it hopefully they will.
Is there any other way the coolant would have gone out of the car like driving fast or anything?

KateF

BlueDragon wrote: »

Ok thanks katef ill go to tescos after work tomorrow and see if they have it hopefully they will.
Is there any other way the coolant would have gone out of the car like driving fast or anything?

I don't think so. Cause I asked my Dad this too when it happened. I thought maybe driving in 4th when I should have been in 5th might have an effect on it (I had only started driving and didn't like going to 5th unless I was on a long stretch) but he assured me that driving fast or in a low gear shouldn't have an effect on the car unless it was clearly labouring. And you would know it the car was labouring, you'd be revving the crap out of it. So no, I'm not 100% sure but I really don't think going fast would have ann effect on it.

BlueDragon

Oh ok thanks a lot your advice helped a lot
How would a leek start from the coolant? just wear and tear?
cause i had the car for about 8 months before that and the light never came on

DublinDilbert

BlueDragon wrote: »

Oh ok thanks a lot your advice helped a lot
How would a leek start from the coolant? just wear and tear?
cause i had the car for about 8 months before that and the light never came on

When you dropped the car in they should of checked the system for leaks, and not just topped up the coolant, you could of done that yourself!

Now its taken a month roughly for the level to go down again, so its quite a small leak... It could be as simple as a hose clip not tightened (or over tightened) or a €0.10 o-ring....

As a first test someone will have to carefully examine the system when its hot (hence its pressurised) and check all the connections/hoses for leaks. A small piece of coloured tissue is good for this, as it will show up the smallest drop of water on it. Failing that you'll need to get the car to someone with a pressure tester, who can pressurise the system cold and find the leak.

You'd be best off topping up with coolant till you have the problem addressed, if you only popped in a litre of water you should be fairly ok...

BlueDragon

Ill try and keep topping it up with coolant and hopefully it will repaire the leek itsself like the other poster said, if not ill try and get it cheaked out

kermitpwee

BlueDragon wrote: »

Ill try and keep topping it up with coolant and hopefully it will repaire the leek itsself like the other poster said, if not ill try and get it cheaked out

The leak hasn't a hope of healing it self. Why did it leak in the first place if it could heal its self. There was coolant in it initially then it leaked, then i replace with coolant and it heals? Pure madness.

BlueDragon

Will i have to use an audi coolant for my car or will any coolant do?
I was told that other coolants can cause premature gasket and water pump failure and the plastic parts of your cooling system can melt.
I have just topped it up with holts anti-freeze coolant, should i get some audi coolant?

kermitpwee

Yes most of the vw/audi clan use a special type of coolant. The best advice would be to find out the correct stuff and get the system drained and replace it. This is not costly. Then after this its up to you whether you want to keep topping up or get it checked out.

I personally would get it checked. If you go low on coolant you have a very good chance of overheating which would blow the head gasket= expensive.
It could be a leak in a place that will never do you damage or it could be that your water pump is leaking. Water pumps will get worse and have to be replaced as they circulate the coolant.
Even if money is tight you need to find out the root of the problem if you are to keep driving the car.

KateF

kermitpwee wrote: »

The leak hasn't a hope of healing it self. Why did it leak in the first place if it could heal its self. There was coolant in it initially then it leaked, then i replace with coolant and it heals? Pure madness.

Eh...yes it can. Mine did. It was a leak caused by who ever put in the hoses allowing the car to run on gas. It was a tiny hole and it did seal itself over.

HungryJoey

I wouldn't just use water in your cooling system, especially in this cold weather. A Frozen cooling system could cause some amount of damage.

Also as said already, VW/AUDI's take a special type of coolant. I would only use this.

peasant

In the interst of preventing serious damage, get this seen to properly.

Don't drive the car with just water in it, not only is it likely to freeze up, pure water also causes corrosion in the internals of the engine = not good.

Get the correct coolant, as mixing two incompatible coolants can cause them to coagulate, blocking things = overheating

Get the system pressure tested, the leak fixed, the cooling system flushed and the coolant replaced with the correct stuff. Shouldn't cost too much.

Get it done now.

kermitpwee

KateF wrote: »

Eh...yes it can. Mine did. It was a leak caused by who ever put in the hoses allowing the car to run on gas. It was a tiny hole and it did seal itself over.

I wasn't talking about your leak, I was talking about the op's leak. It seemed clear to me that if the car was losing so much coolant that the low coolant light was coming on then it wasn't going to heal its self.

I said 'the leak' which to my knowledge would indicate that i was talking about the op's leak rather than yours. I made this assumption based on the fact that THE is the definitive article in the english language which would indicate that I was talking about the leak in the op's car rather than yours.

I accept that your car healed its problem and I have noted that further on in the thread you acknowledge that the op's leak may be greater than yours.
I am not trying to demean your advice, in fact you gave some great advice in the thread. Just trying to advice op.

It was not my wish to offend anyone in this thread.

KateF

kermitpwee wrote: »

I wasn't talking about your leak, I was talking about the op's leak. It seemed clear to me that if the car was losing so much coolant that the low coolant light was coming on then it wasn't going to heal its self.

I do think I pointed this out to the OP and siad they should get is looked at as soon as possible, because if it was near empty when they looked the leak was a LOT bigger than mine. So no offensive intended on either sides

mickdw

Get it checked. If no leaks. it is possible you have a head gasket problem Is it petrol or diesel car?

Twin-go

Get it booked into garage asap. How quick was it from when it was filled up to when warning light came on?
I had same issue with my last car. But I had my coolant disapear one day and car overheated. Brought it into local garage who presure tested it and said could not find any leak. Filled it with coolant and it was grand for next two weeks. Next thing it was loosing coolant every couple of days. Turned out it was a crack in the water pump.
I think I know how it cracked too. Hit a severe speed bump with an almighty bang at the other side. Shock sheered part of the pump off it's mount.
Hit and bumps pot holes lately?
Just have mechanic check pump as well as hoses.

BlueDragon

Thanks for the advice, does anyone know how much it would cost roughly to get cheaked?
i have audi coolant ordered, and will hopefully get it tomorrow or monday am currently running it on a small bit about 15 - 20 percent cheap coolant mixed with water, how would i go about draining the remainding coolant from the system? im guessing my plan of taking the squirty part from a cif spray and spraying it out is a very bad idea lol
p.s. petrol car