rejected VW warranty claim

[Drive Blind]

CKY said:

I didn't believe it until the glorified traveller across the road financed a 66-reg Golf GTD, had exactly this issue after 2 months - oh, what a shame... Surprised people are shocked to hear about VW designing something like this tbh.

it's not a silver 3dr on a scottish plate is it ?

mines was starting to show this problem - the drivers side vent was cooler than the centre vent - when I traded it in about 6 months ago.

On the issue itself, I asked a VW indie about it and he suggested even with removing the silica bag they still do it. He claimed poor manufacturing of the heater matrix was the problem.

[Sheepshanks]

Smint said:

Going to show my ignorance here, again, but couldn't you remove the silica bag (or replace the header tank with a non gel one) fully drain and flush the system then put some normal OAT 5 year coolant mix in?, you can still get 5 litres of Comma red coolant for about £20 and 5 litres of deionised water for a tenner max, its what i've been doing.

Or am i miles behind the times.

The VW coolant is high silicate to protect aluminium parts hence the bag or insert in the header tank to maintain the silicate level.

[wyson]

https://youtu.be/39ngHGvMzEg?si=jDHEzvee7v4XWnCn

Says in the comments above VW introduced a new coolant, so you can change the header tank and flush the system with the new stuff. No silica bag required. Looks like a diy job to swap out the header tank for a new one that doesn’t have the bag.

Constantly astounded at what car manufacturers do. Was reading about wet belts as well. It’s like they don’t care as long as they save a few bob and they think the car will get through the warranty period.

Edited by wyson on Saturday 2nd December 06:07

[GeniusOfLove]

BenS94 said:

Narcisus said:

GeniusOfLove said:

I read stuff like this and then they go and buy another VAG dustbin. At least the people who repeatedly subject themselves to Land Rover quality and service get to drive a Range Rover for their trouble, VAG customers go through the same to have vinyl seats, crap ride, and a four banger diesel engine

Whatever 350bhp and 4wd is enough for me maybe save hard and one day you can buy yourself something decent ?

I sense jealousy. He's had more decent cars than you know, you're just miserable.

I think the last time I got excited about 350bhp was 1994

And 4wd? Nice for my old mum to know she won't get herself in trouble, she's not much of a driver these days, but not for me thanks.

Sheepshanks said:

The VW coolant is high silicate to protect aluminium parts hence the bag or insert in the header tank to maintain the silicate level.

The irony of this is almost nothing they make will be in service long enough for corrosion in the cooling system to matter, but loads of their cars get gimped when this bag splits. Buggering up a load of cars with an overcomplicated, costly, and fatally flawed solution to a problem that doesn't actually exist has to be the most "German Engineering" thing of all time.

Edited by GeniusOfLove on Monday 4th December 12:48

[Smint]

Sheepshanks said:

The VW coolant is high silicate to protect aluminium parts hence the bag or insert in the header tank to maintain the silicate level.

Thanks, but again i wonder what's the advantage of this special coolant over slinging the pesky bag, flushing the system out, then dropping some decent 5 year OAT coolant in and changing it every 5 years which takes about 1/2 an hour and costs around £20/25 all in for coolant and deionised water.

I've been doing the latter for donkeys years and yet to find aluminium parts disntegrating.

[GeniusOfLove]

Smint said:

Sheepshanks said:

The VW coolant is high silicate to protect aluminium parts hence the bag or insert in the header tank to maintain the silicate level.

Thanks, but again i wonder what's the advantage of this special coolant over slinging the pesky bag, flushing the system out, then dropping some decent 5 year OAT coolant in and changing it every 5 years which takes about 1/2 an hour and costs around £20/25 all in for coolant and deionised water.

I've been doing the latter for donkeys years and yet to find aluminium parts disntegrating.

Only time I've seen serious corrosion in a cooling system has been when someone has used tap water or just left ancient glycol coolant in an old iron block/aluminium head engine. Modern OAT is specified to last 10 years, I can't believe for one second that VAG give a fk about how their cars are doing at 11 years old.