low coolant

[jamiedal]

Hi everyone,

I've had my car for around 2 weeks (06 plate on 66k) so decided to do an oil check and coolant check, I discovers the coolant was about an inch under the minimum line and it was perfect when I picked it up from the dealer

Is it worth taking it back to them to check or should I fill it back up and see if it happens again first?

Any known leak points I could check easily?

Thanks

Jamie

[Ellis]

Check auxiliary radiators. Known to weep/leak due to corrosion.

Look through the 2 lowest bumper grilles left/right and look for any signs of coolant colour fluid sitting on or around the radiator fins.

[Stairs]

Take it back, my Aux Rad had gone when I bought the car... Sit still and get the engine over about 105 degrees then you should see steam coming from either headlamp, that is one indication.

I took mine back and got told that it was not covered under warranty and that it could have happened in the 4 days I had owed the car.

Hit them with the 'sale of goods' act, the car is not fit for purpose as sold, worst case take them to court, as long as you complained to them pretty quick I am pretty sure you would win. but my guy caved in straight away and replaced it.

[jamiedal]

Yeah I just checked and the left hand side aux rad seems to have some fluid on the bottom of it and the right hand side one is completely dry

[geordie jay]

you only need one aux rad really,, take the drivers side out and put in a caf and put the rad that's not leaking on the passenger side,,i,ve done it like a few on here..

[Ellis]

As above, if you don't get any luck with your dealer then I would explore the CAF option.

[jamiedal]

I'll see how I get on with the dealer tomorrow and report back...Thanks

[gars7]

Jamiedal, I offer the following points based on recent expensive (US$4,300) experience in my wife's 2004 S4 Avant with 106k miles on the clock. She pulled a red coolant warning light with subsequent high temp readings.

Towed car to Audi, with the following findings:

Found top radiator hose blown apart.
Found the water pump, coolant overflow hose and secondary radiator to be leaking coolant
Found front crank seal to be leaking oil
Found oil pan to be leaking oil
Found oil filter housing and valley pan gasket to be leaking oil. (Note, we never had any oil leak show on the garage floor - it collected in the engine valley.)

Good luck with you coolant issue. At minimum, these are other places to look.

[Ellis]

Shitting hell, I hope it isn't that for the sake of the OP.

[jamiedal]

Just to keep you all updated...took it back down yesterday and they put it in the workshop straight away and gave me a courtesy car to run about in, should be sorted early next week hopefully

[Stairs]

Just to keep you all updated...took it back down yesterday and they put it in the workshop straight away and gave me a courtesy car to run about in, should be sorted early next week hopefully

Good stuff, is this a main Audi dealer or a Indy?

[geordie jay]

sounds like a dealer...and if it is they wont want to drop a aux rad but tell you to keep both haha,,then they will give you all the warranty crap speech

[jamiedal]

Just had a phone call off the garage, passenger side aux radiator was leaking and driver side wasn't looking to clever either so both radiators were replaced....picking her up tomorrow

[geordie jay]

Haha typical audi..if in doubt replace everything...

[mf51y]

What's the going rate for a replacement radiator??