150ps losing coolant

[Broadside]

I’ve been having problems with my van losing coolant for the last year and I’ve popped up on numerous threads when other people have reported issues, so time to start my own thread.

My van has got 120k miles on the clock, I had the EGR swapped earlier this year and the leak got better but didn’t stop. My local independent garage put some dye in the coolant and I’ve run it for 2000 miles until it used most of the coolant which was about 1.5 litres. The leak is slow and there are no visible traces of the dye anyway so it is probably getting consumed internally. After standing overnight it is not uncommon for the van to have a bit of a lumpy start for a second but it’s never bad and it runs very well apart from this slow leak.

The garage say the next step is to strip it down and get the head pressure tested. They’ve done this job on an A3 recently and it came out to £5k total. That is a game changing amount of money to spend on a van with 120k on the clock so I’m now in two minds whether to suck the bill up or get rid.

What would you do?

 

[Dellmassive]

surely the first thing is to pressure test the coolant system to see where the leak is.

and maybe a smoke test as well?


++++

water to oil cooler - is oil level rising / emulsified oil?

water to block - head gasket? - plugs or injectors might need to come out? (and possible cylinder compression test?)

water cooled charge cooler leak to charge inlet?

small rad leak - to atmosphere?

++++

 

[Broadside]

It has been pressure tested overnight a couple of times in the past year.

The oil level has started dropping in the last 5k miles, it never used to use any noticeable amount, maybe that’s the engine ageing or an indicator there is cylinder damage, but it’s expensive to find out. There is the usual bit of mayo at the top of the filler but no worse than it ever was. The dipstick doesn’t show any sign of gloopy oil.

They’ve stuck a scope in the EGR and also the charge cooler, no evidence of a leak in either.

You’re right it could be a head gasket but that’s a lot of labour to dismantle and reassemble so that bill would probably reach £3k without blinking.

I was hopeful of an external leak in a rad or pipework but the UV dye can’t be spotted anywhere external.

There is still a lot is could be but once it gets stripped down I’m locked in for the expensive ride, so I’m trying to work out if it’s worth it. It’s pretty depressing.

 

[mmi]

Also AdBlue injector has been checked for coolant leak?
How about auxiliary coolant heater and it's pump?

 

[Broadside]

Also AdBlue injector has been checked for coolant leak?
How about auxiliary coolant heater and it's pump?

They are good questions @mmi

I need to check if the under tray has been removed to look at the auxiliary coolant heater, I don’t know if it has.

Can you expand on the AdBlue injector? I didn’t realise there was a coolant flow down to that.

 

[mmi]

Can you expand on the AdBlue injector? I didn’t realise there was a coolant flow down to that.

Just one to check - because it indeed is cooled by coolant flow down there.

 

[Broadside]

I’ve spoken to the garage, apparently they did have the under tray off yesterday to check the aux heater. I’ve asked them to look at the AdBlue injector so they will do that today. Their advice was that the occasional lumpy cold starts are indicative of an internal leak and with the amount my van is losing there would be visible signs if it was external.

The replacement head with TPS is £1900 which starts to explain why the repair bill would be so high at £4k-£5k. So based on what comes back today this is probably the end of my T6 ownership as I cannot keep up with such big repair bills

 

[Broadside]

Yesterday I was minded to not fix the van but then after spending the day looking at alternative vehicles I’ve realised that a £5k fix is horrible but cheaper than getting a replacement vehicle, so I’ve told the garage to go ahead with the fix. Gut wrenching but it seems like the right thing to do.

I need the van for a trip to the Netherlands at the end of July, fingers crossed it will be done by then but getting the head off and then pressure testing it will all take time. The killer could be a TPS parts delay if a new head is required.

 

[Broadside]

I got my van back Fri afternoon, 6 hours before I was due to travel to the Netherlands.

It’s had the head replaced and on first starting it was only running on 3 cylinders, turns out an injector got damaged during the work so that has been replaced too.

I’ve driven it 400 miles since getting it back on Friday and all seems fine. I still have no idea if this fixes the coolant loss issue but after £5k I sincerely hope so…!

 

[Pauly]

Fingers crossed for you buddy