Coolant top up

[chan61922]

Coolant top up?

Evenings guys so thought I’d have a look under the bonnet this evening after a while of doing so, all is well however coolant tank level has now reached below min mark, since my ownership I’ve not had to top it up once (20 months now) I did notice when I serviced back in may last year it was creeping near the min mark, and a year prior to this I assume it was suffeciently topped up before I bought from dealer. Is this normal behaviour after perhaps 10k miles? Quick google search suggests it’s normal for my car or do you think a leak might be present? Cars not overheating or anything and no funny coolant smells lingering. Sounds silly but how do I go about topping it up, it’s orange stuff in at the min can I mix any colour, do I buy pre mixed or mix myself with distilled water? Ignore my stupidity never had to top up coolant in all the years of driving lol

[chan61922]

I should add the cars from the vag group, didn’t mention make and model as Post would’ve diverted to their page but there slow as hell on there lol I beleive I require g13 in my car? Will any g13 do or should I buy from stealer? Trouble is whatever is in there looks orange to me and g13 is pink?

Cheers

[chan61922]

Many thanks for helpful response, I will re check today in the daylight and once levels have dropped and settled to get a accurate reading, it did look orange in the dark though, if it’s pink shall I just go ahead and top up with g13? After checking Halfords and euro car parts seems many brands/companies offer a g13 variant is this good enough or should I just buy from dealer? Agreed if it’s orange and I don’t know what’s in it probably best to just flush it all out and start a fresh,

[Chubbyross]

It’s probably just natural coolant loss over time but keep an eye on it just in case. I have a Skoda Octavia and my water pump is leaking coolant - a known fault on these. It will need replacing soon, although I just top up coolant from time to time to ensure the level doesn’t drop too low. I always use the same colour (pink for mine).

I’ll be interested to hear opinions on mixing coolant types. I always stick to the same colour but is the rule on not mixing based on hokum or science?

[trickywoo]

Coolant is still a crazy minefield for us punters but the reality is there are only a handful of companies producing coolant worldwide and incompatibility isn’t really a thing with modern automotive stuff.

Prestone are one of the big makers and they have a very readily available coolant which is multi compatible and mixes with anything. The specs are very impressive. I have used it for top ups and full changes and will continue to do so.

[chan61922]

God knows wether coolant can be mixed or not, I’ve never really needed to top in my past cars, slighty concerned with this car has it has a Silcia pad inside reservoir which is inserted to prolong life of coolant etc etc, to make matters worst this thing also is known to burst on few individuals so slighty alarmed at the min. I will recheck later today and see where level sits once settled, in all fairness it is in a pressurised tank so I could have mid read it falsely has the car had been driven prior, saying that I’d expect the level to be higher in that case, who knows. The water pump failure mentioned above how did you diagnose this? Is the loss in coolant your many reason to make this judgement, or is there other tell tale signs as my car is also prone to water pump failure grrr

[Chubbyross]

chan61922 said:

God knows wether coolant can be mixed or not, I’ve never really needed to top in my past cars, slighty concerned with this car has it has a Silcia pad inside reservoir which is inserted to prolong life of coolant etc etc, to make matters worst this thing also is known to burst on few individuals so slighty alarmed at the min. I will recheck later today and see where level sits once settled, in all fairness it is in a pressurised tank so I could have mid read it falsely has the car had been driven prior, saying that I’d expect the level to be higher in that case, who knows. The water pump failure mentioned above how did you diagnose this? Is the loss in coolant your many reason to make this judgement, or is there other tell tale signs as my car is also prone to water pump failure grrr

My local (trusted) mechanic mentioned the water pump problem. I checked on a few Skoda forums and he was right. It’s a known fault. There have been various pump versions released but, as far as I can tell, it’s still an issue. I also don’t know if it a VAG-wide problem or just Skoda. Anyway, if it is your water pump it’s not going to grenade on the motorway. You’ll just need to periodically top up the coolant.

[CT25]

trickywoo said:

Coolant is still a crazy minefield for us punters but the reality is there are only a handful of companies producing coolant worldwide and incompatibility isn’t really a thing with modern automotive stuff.

Prestone are one of the big makers and they have a very readily available coolant which is multi compatible and mixes with anything. The specs are very impressive. I have used it for top ups and full changes and will continue to do so.

I also used Prestone when I needed a top up. I had no idea what was in my car and it was advertised as compatible with all coolant types.

[Deranged Rover]

chan61922 said:

Coolant top up?

Evenings guys so thought I’d have a look under the bonnet this evening after a while of doing so, all is well however coolant tank level has now reached below min mark, since my ownership I’ve not had to top it up once (20 months now) I did notice when I serviced back in may last year it was creeping near the min mark, and a year prior to this I assume it was suffeciently topped up before I bought from dealer. Is this normal behaviour after perhaps 10k miles? Quick google search suggests it’s normal for my car or do you think a leak might be present?

Pah, that's not a leak. A leak is when you top the coolant up to the upper mark when cold, go out shopping and then come back to find there's none left in the expansion tank!

Turns out it was a split pipe right at the back of the engine. £140 for the pipe and £360 labour as pretty much everything in the engine bay except the engine had to come out to get at it...

[chan61922]

Thanks for response guys, yes the water pump is also a issue on my vw, it’s a nightmare the cars only 4 years old it shouldn’t have weak points like this. I’ve just rang dealer up who reckons g13 is now g12, even though my tank states g13 on it, colour remains the same though? Would I be okay topping up with this? Re checked today and the solution in there does looks more like a pale pink then orange and I can confirm it is about a cm under the min mark hmm

[cuprabob]

chan61922 said:

Thanks for response guys, yes the water pump is also a issue on my vw, it’s a nightmare the cars only 4 years old it shouldn’t have weak points like this. I’ve just rang dealer up who reckons g13 is now g12, even though my tank states g13 on it, colour remains the same though? Would I be okay topping up with this? Re checked today and the solution in there does looks more like a pale pink then orange and I can confirm it is about a cm under the min mark hmm

Dealer is wrong, G13 superceded the G12 variants and there is no issue with mixing them. Based on the quote below, G13 is more environmentally friendly

"The G13 has a purple/violet colour and has the same exceptional cooling and antifreeze performance as G12++. The main difference: it is manufactured using glycerin instead of glycol. Glycerin is much less harmful to the environment than glycol."

As it's only a small amount, just top up with neat G13. When you top it up to the correct level, do it when the engine is stone cold, like first thing in the morning, as the level fluctuates. Likewise when you check the level, do so when the engine is stone cold.

Edited by cuprabob on Thursday 4th February 17:17

Edited by cuprabob on Thursday 4th February 17:19

[chan61922]

Hmm I’m certain the dealer specifically said g13 has now gone back to g12 for whatever reason, maybe cost etc. Whatever is in the car looks pink not purple and pics/videos online all indicate g13 is infact pink not purple, who knows though could be different colours of the stuff. I’m half tempted just to flush it all out and remove silcia packet whilst I’m at it, kill 2 birds with one stone. Trouble is I need the car for work etc the dsg service and haldex service is due in a few 1000miles if I can run safely on just a top up then it would make sense to get coolant flushed out when the cars going in to get my other bits done

[Aunty Pasty]

I too have a VAG car of a similar age. G13 is the correct coolant you require and it is pink/violet. My coolant bottle does have an orange tint to it but I think it's due to age of the coolant / dirt in the system staining the coolant bottle. It did start off pink and I had it from new so I know it's always had the correct coolant.

[chan61922]

Many thanks bud, I’ve read horror story of when it gets a tint, ie turn orange etc it usually contaminated, I won’t go into the ultimate worse case scenario lol so may be worth while having yours flushed out for peice of mind. Does your car have the silica bag Inside it? There’s also stories these burst/ break on people too and eventually the crystals inside the bag contaminate the whole cooling system resulting in a 1200 bill! Happy Monday lol vag life eh, was so much easier on the other side with bmw lol

[Aunty Pasty]

I think I do a silica bag inside my coolant bottle. I've seen some threads about the bag bursting too. I'm going to leave it in there for now. I had a coolant leak awhile back where they replaced the thermostat housing under waranty so the whole system was flushed back then. The coolant is still pink but there always seems to be a tint of orange to it when looking at the bottle. It may be the light or the dirt causing it.

[chan61922]

Hmm perhaps just ageing of tank itself perhaps maybe just changed colour with dye of coolant. Popped into dealer today picked up g12 evo, apparently this is what they now use, colour is same and it’s pre mixed too says so on tin, phoned a few local branches today to confirm and they all using it, dealer has confirmed it’s fine to mix and top up with g13, should I ignore dealer advice or just Chuck it in?

[chan61922]

Just checked the owners manual for my own peice of mind, I suggest you do same mate. Orange tint etc in tank or even on tank itself indicates it’s been mixed with or has be topped up with something other then manufactures specification

[Tony1963]

Peace of mind