Low coolant warning

[Vexed]

Hi guys,

I was driving my Superb today and out of a sudden it started beeping and showed a red message in the maxidot saying coolant levels are low.
I stopped immediately, switched off the engine and checked the coolant bottle, it was empty!! I was puzzled and I thought there must a be leak somewhere.
I then waited a bit then opened the bottle cover,a bit of steam came out, then I looked again in the bottle, the coolant levels were back to normal again!!!
Is this normal? do I need get the car checked?

Many thanks.

[Umai Naa!!]

Top it up, and then have it booked in for a pressure test.

[Vexed]

Thanks Umai, I shall do that tomorrow...

[ploz58]

what was the diagnosis? please

[Vexed]

what was the diagnosis? please

Water pump failure.

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[yowie]

I have the same thing on my '09 2.0 TDI, we had the water pump replaced 3 weeks ago following slow leak. In 200,000 says its never lost coolant til now.
Now after a few hundred country kays last weekend, the reservoir was all but empty when I got it back from the son who hadn't noticed anything except a warning he was going to tell me about.
I called VW dealer who did the work and was told to drive it and see if it was an airlock from the work done.
Only issue is the son is driving it 750 km for work next weekend.
Think I will get a pressure test, but will that show up a faulty water pump seeing as its internal?
Any other ideas? Not keen to risk the son's country drive with his level of observance of the dials.

[Transporter]

The pressure test doesn’t have to show coolant leak from the w.pump leaks slowly and you can’t see anything drips from the engine bay.


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[Hillbilly]

After I had a waterpump done in the Passat it did that Actually temp reading dropped going uphill and was all over the place.

Fixed it by bringing it home popping the bonnet and opening the coolant bottle and it burped away and all the air came out and was Ok after that.

Worth a try I guess

[yowie]

Thanks Transporter, its taken about 3 weeks and 500 kays to lose the full bowl of coolant.

Thanks Hillbillly, we have done the burp test and no luck.

The engine is at least coming up to temp as per usual.

Its going in tomorrow. First suspect is the 3 week old water pump After that the 11 year old hoses I guess.

A new waterpump fitted to the Mk3TDI leaked onto the harmonic balancer unnoticed. Until the coolant denatured the rubber in the harmonic balancer which failed catastrophically. It was the end of that motor, and car, as the same driver failed to respond to the noise of the timing belt chewing on the housing and drove until the valves and pistons interfered with his progress.

[yowie]

Quick update. The coolant leak was from a flange/ gasket at the the other end of the motor from the water pump which is fine, according to the dealer. Overnight part coming to BNE from SYD today. So should be done today.
I asked if there was anything else worth replacing, radiator hoses, heater hoses, etc, seeing as there was 4 hours labour involved in an 11 year old car with 200 km?
They say no, but seeing as how we are regulars and this is the second visit in a few weeks with the same issue are meeting us halfway on labour.
So all good. Son will test it out with a 750 km trip on Sunday. May get some spare coolant in case of an airlock.