Engine coolant change

magic_murph

Audi A4 2010

Recently the Engine maintenance light has started coming on - firstly for a few days then would turn off but has been on contently for the past 2-3 week.

I know it could be a number of things but would changing the engine coolant help - is that easily done?

mickdw

magic_murph wrote: »

Audi A4 2010

Recently the Engine maintenance light has started coming on - firstly for a few days then would turn off but has been on contently for the past 2-3 week.

I know it could be a number of things but would changing the engine coolant help - is that easily done?

Would be the last thing I would think of tbh.
What engine have you got?

blade1

Get it scanned even with a cheap eBay scanner.
Btw recommended time span for changing coolant is usually 3 years.

Yawns

Forget about the coolant change for a moment, it'll be down on the list of priorities. If the light has come on, then chances are a fault code is stored. If you can get someone with a diagnostic scanner to read the codes, it would be the first port of call. It could be a simple code that a €20 ebay scanner might pickup but tbh they are that cheap for a reason. It's no use to rely on them for most of the problems. However that being said, it can pick up codes for easy enough stuff such as a c02 sensor fault.

A decent indie mech shouldn't charge an arm and a leg to run a diagnostics and the equipment they have is far far better and far far more expensive

Alanstrainor

Yawns wrote: »

Forget about the coolant change for a moment, it'll be down on the list of priorities. If the light has come on, then chances are a fault code is stored. If you can get someone with a diagnostic scanner to read the codes, it would be the first port of call. It could be a simple code that a €20 ebay scanner might pickup but tbh they are that cheap for a reason. It's no use to rely on them for most of the problems. However that being said, it can pick up codes for easy enough stuff such as a c02 sensor fault.

A decent indie mech shouldn't charge an arm and a leg to run a diagnostics and the equipment they have is far far better and far far more expensive

I agree. Forget the coolant for now. It's often not a trivial job to do, as it requires bleeding air out of the system which can be a right pain.

Get the codes read and take it from there.

magic_murph

Cheers guys - I'll see if I can get the codes and move on from there

its the 2010 2.0 TDI S-line. think the 170bhp model

PurvesGrundy

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I agree. Forget the coolant for now. It's often not a trivial job to do, as it requires bleeding air out of the system which can be a right pain.

Not too complex I wouldn't think?

Just leave the engine running with the cap off the expansion tank and heater at full blast.

rex-x

PurvesGrundy wrote: »

Not too complex I wouldn't think?

Just leave the engine running with the cap off the expansion tank and heater at full blast.

That is often not the case, with 2 or 3 bleed points requiring opening in a specific order and extensions for the expansion bottle depending on its location in the engine bay. Many cars (fiat punto's for example) have head gasket issues because people think just running the car with the cap off is grand for bleeding. Also few modern cars have a diverter valve for the coolant so heaters can be on hot or cold, its more pre 2000 cars that needed them on hot.

PurvesGrundy

rex-x wrote: »

That is often not the case, with 2 or 3 bleed points requiring opening in a specific order and extensions for the expansion bottle depending on its location in the engine bay. Many cars (fiat punto's for example) have head gasket issues because people think just running the car with the cap off is grand for bleeding. Also few modern cars have a diverter valve for the coolant so heaters can be on hot or cold, its more pre 2000 cars that needed them on hot.

On cars with a reputation for blowing headgaskets, maybe. The Punto is one of them.

I've done coolant changes without going near any bleed points and have had no issue.

rex-x

That doesn't mean you got all the air out though, some cars can be bled in that manner successfully but certainly not all of them.