vw golf tdi 150 2003 - mk4 golf tdi water loss

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Tue 22 Jan 2013 17:30
vw golf tdi 150 2003 - mk4 golf tdi water loss - carnut1980

my temp gauge is erratic. barely moves but on a long motorway run it hit middle. i knew of a water leak but thought i had sorted it with radweld. shorter journeys made the 'check coolant' message show on dash, but never made temp gauge move. a good motorway run made gauge get to middle. then back to nil. then eventually middle again (90f) then went as high as 110, water boiling, but no 'check coolant' message. i do have a replacement stat. car drives fine, though IMO slightly down on fuel economy compared to book figures. recently changed oil. no mayo or sludge. header tank looks sound. no obvious leaks anywhere. engine has only done 61k. could the stat be causing water loss? water pump and cambelt changed 9 months ago. help!

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Tue 22 Jan 2013 17:39
vw golf tdi 150 2003 - mk4 golf tdi water loss - Collos25

There are two ways to loose water you either have a leak or a headgasget problem ,check for a leak if non found then its the gasket.With the problems you have with the temp reading then I would go for the head gasget if I could not find any leaks.

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Tue 22 Jan 2013 22:17
vw golf tdi 150 2003 - mk4 golf tdi water loss - Peter.N.

You can check for head gasket leakage by placing a receptical under the end of the overflow pipe on the header tank, if it has a lot of coolant in it after a journey that's what the problem will be.

You may see signs of coolant ejection around the filler cap and overflow pipe it shows up as a whitish deposit.

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