# HUGE coolant leak.



## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

my gf car has huge coolant leak.

I drove the car for 10hours and I heard and saw the red temperature warning.

And check coolant level is very low. seemed like coolant leak

, so I wait 1 hours and refill the coolant but leaking become huge.

If I put the coolant until middle of min and max now,

nothing in the coolant bottle anymore after 15 mins drive.

I hope it's not that serious problem that costs me alot.

Recently, water pump is done, so I just guess it may water pump was not installed correctly.

But Now I am worry about that if it's head gasket or head.

I assumed if it's head gasket or head, it can not be this huge leak, right?

What you guy think?

Any idea for leak?


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

If it was headgasket, you'd have oil in the exhaust or vice versa, or the more likely a lot of sweet smelling steam coming out the exhaust. There's only a few places for water leaks. Is it over the trans or the on the timing belt side?


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

I don't know how to find where it leak.
but After I drive, I saw alot of white dirty spot one my engine cover.


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## warranty225cpe (Dec 3, 2008)

You have to try to find out where its coming from. It might be coming from your coolant flange. Mine just took a **** a couple weeks ago.


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## wrparrish (Nov 13, 2008)

You can tell where its coming from if the leak is severe.

You need to jack the car up, and let it idle long enough for the thermostat to open, when that happens, coolant will circulate and leak out of the faulty area.

Check each side of the engine, your looking for the water pump on the passenger side, or the coolant neck on the driver side. You can also look underneath the car on the rear to check around the coolant line going to the turbo.


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## wrparrish (Nov 13, 2008)

Are you French canadian by the way?


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

It's really huge leak.
Just few mins ago, I filled the coolant again and drove 10 mins.
coolant is all gone now.
Where can make this huge leak?
I don't think little crack from hose or flange can make that huge..
How to find where is leaked?
I can not see any pink or white(engine cover dirty spot was come from out side)


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

um.. it's really huge snow outside and I am living in apt, so I can not jack up now...
What do you think, how much it will cost if I bring it to dealer to check up?


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

I am korean:wave:


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## wrparrish (Nov 13, 2008)

Your coolant is pressurized, and actively pumped.

You can lose alot of coolant pretty quickly if you open up a hole in that system. Your lucky that you are losing that much, because once you do jack it up and watch, it will be easy to see. 

If its snowy and ****ty, find a parking garage, or move down south. Life is nicer here.

There just is no way for us to guess as to where your coolant is coming from, but its not hard to find out if you actually can check. Unless its your water pump, i bet it would not cost more than $2-300 for someone else to fix it for you.


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

Remove the engine covers. Get a flashlight handy. Fill the coolant back up. Start engine. NO NEED TO DRIVE. Just let car run sitting still. Keep looking under the car with flashlight and you'll see it start to come out eventually. If it's on passenger side, it's the water pump or thermostat. If on the driver's side, it's the coolant neck that is on the driver's side of the head just above the transmission. Water pump is worst case scenario as it means timing belt has to come off. The other two (thermostat and water neck) are both easy fixes. If you can't do this testing, no one here can tell you where your leak is without pictures.


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

thank you guys.
I will try to take a look and some photos tomorrow.
During waiting your guys' responses, I find a product "coolant dye."
How about this?


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

Not needed, as our coolant is bright pink, and usually forms a nice crust where it is leaking from.


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## bauch1425 (Jun 29, 2006)

Yeah, it should be pretty easy to spot. I had a minuscule pin-drop crack in my coolant flange and the crusty white/pink on the top of my tranny was hard to miss. If you've got as large of a leak as you say, it should be pretty easily noticeable. Take a flash light, remove your covers and look around everywhere. Follow all of the coolant lines from the tank and radiator. You should fine it.


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

it's 100k so far, so not sure previous owner used oem coolant or just aftermarket one.
And the one I fill recently is peak coolant from autozone


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## bauch1425 (Jun 29, 2006)

You never want to mix OEM with aftermarket fluid! After you get your coolant leak figured out you're going to want to flush your entire coolant system and refill with OEM/Pentosin G12.


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

bauch1425 said:


> You never want to mix OEM with aftermarket fluid! After you get your coolant leak figured out you're going to want to flush your entire coolant system and refill with OEM/Pentosin G12.


Or the coolant of choice since he will have flushed all the G12 out. You don't have to run OEM coolant if you flush the system fully.


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## lite1979 (Sep 9, 2005)

Stop driving it! If you're losing all your coolant in 10 minutes, you could easily overheat the motor, and the temperature gauge will only read correctly if you have pressure in your coolant system, which you do not.

Is the passenger's side floor wet? If so, it's your heater core.

The above responses are correct concerning the water pump and the coolant flange.

It could also be your after-run coolant pump, near the radiator, or the radiator itself.

If you want, I'll take a look at it. I live in Amherst near UB North.

oh, and call or text: (three one five) 877-seven three seven nine


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## Doooglasss (Aug 28, 2009)

wow.


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

THANKS LIFE1979
but I am staying gf's apt. now which is in PA.
I am glad to find another tt guy near ub.
I will be home this weekend.
We can hang out sometime
My apt is right next to Gokart.

By the way, I checked my gf's car today morning and
found coolant drop from near drive belt.
I guess it's leaked from some place else and hit near drive belt and dropped to the ground.
But I wasn't able to find where the fluid actually come from.
these are photos I took this morning
I don't think the fluid of first photo is coolant.
But Fluid of second and third photos are coolant.


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## raart (Aug 9, 2010)

I had pretty similar problem with my previous car (2000 Jetta VR6) however never happens on TT. From Jetta experience I can point you to take a look at water pipe (http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Jetta_IV--VR6_12v/Engine/Cooling/ES257345/) aka Crack Pipe. I will suggest that you save route and buy the whole kit (coolant flange, water pipe, thermostat housing, thermostat and all gaskets) otherwise you will find out a hard way (like me) that other parts there will fail soon (in regards of overheating plastic gets micro cracks and later just fail too). Purchase always a OEM coolant (concentrate) which is around 20$ and is more the enough to fill all system. The labor will be a bit expensive but good mechanic should be able to get this done in 1hr (but they will try to charge you for 2-3hrs labor). I do always wait there and look when they working on my car. 

I don’t know if TT’s have a secondary water pump (Jetta VR6 has) but mine was having a small leak too (enough for coolant to fall to minimum in 3-6 months). 

I hope this is helping you somehow…

I just remember that a friend of mine had a similar problem with his Jetta 1.8T but he had leak somewhere above running belt on some kind of T splitter (above water pump) and he was able to replace by himself in 10 minutes (and he usually don’t have a clue about mechanics). Just top the coolant afterwards with water and that its….


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## warranty225cpe (Dec 3, 2008)

I know its your girls car, but you need to get farmiliar with it before you blow it up. Its really not hard to find a leak that size. I was always taught that you work your way up when looking for a leak. Start at the puddle, and follow the fluid up the engine. Im goin to go out on a limb and say its more than likely your coolant flange. Based on the nature of their failure being from heat cycles stressing that garbage plastic. Given the fact that its cold as hell where you are, and the fact that its got that many miles on it. look for the highest point on the engine thats wet. Also (not to sound like a prick), do you know how to take the engine covers off? Once they are out of the way, it would be REALLY hard to miss a leak.

Again, its just a guess. but rule out this part. It looks like this..










Its located here. Its connected to the engine block, And redirects coolant through your system. Its basically just a plastic junction.


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

I even don't know how to open the hood lol
thank you all.
The pipe is located right to the engine
but the coolant is dropping near drive belt which is left.

anyway, I will try to find the leaking point again today.
It's really hard to find.. freezing out there and no flash light.


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## wrparrish (Nov 13, 2008)

If its by the belts on the passenger side, that is probably your water pump. If its dumping coolant as quickly as you say, i do believe it has failed perhaps.


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## trixx (Dec 23, 2002)

DougLoBue said:


> wow.



that's what i'm thinking :facepalm:

to the OP... stop driving the damn car until you have the coolant leak fixed... have it towed to a shop or let someone who knows what they're doing look at it.

everyone's guesses as to the coolant leak is pure speculation... 

my TT's cooling system failed at a hose coming from the coolant flange and a week later from the coolant flange itself. there are too many points a failure to guess or assume anything.

ps. raart: 1.8ts don't have a "crack pipe" ... that's unique to the VR6s


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

went dealer today and they said it's water pump.
sadly, even though the water pump was changed less than a month, I need to pay again.
The dealer asked me for 450 bucks, so
I am looking for water pump at ebay and will find another shop.
BTW,
What is impeller?
People are talking I should buy metal impeller not plastic one.
How can I find metal one?


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## wrparrish (Nov 13, 2008)

The impeller is similar to a " propeller" it is the blade on the back of the water pump that circulates the coolant.

You want one made of metal.

If you look on ECS or mjm for replacement parts, it will usually say " Metal impeller " if it has one.


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## 20v master (May 7, 2009)

The water pump is ~$60 USD part. The labor to remove the timing belt, motor mount, tensioner, etc, to get to it is why it's $450.


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## trixx (Dec 23, 2002)

Chunki84 said:


> went dealer today and they said it's water pump.
> sadly, even though the water pump was changed less than a month, I need to pay again.
> The dealer asked me for 450 bucks, so
> I am looking for water pump at ebay and will find another shop.
> ...


was the water pump changed at the dealer? and now failed and they say you have to pay again?

dealership work should be warrantied... if a part they install fails they should replace the part and cover the labour. i inquired at the audi dealership and here all work is covered for 20,000kms or 1 year, regardless whether your car is under warranty or not.

if the dealer gives you the run around contact audi USA and file a complaint


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## Chunki84 (Dec 18, 2008)

I did it another shop and it's 7 hours far from the current car location.
I only can save money for the part if I send old part to them.


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