danb986
In awe of VCDS
After swapping A3's from a 2007 2.0TDi to the 2010 2.0TDi common rail I thought I'd be trouble free for a while.
On my '07 I had a problem where it was losing water which thankfully turned out to be the rad. I had this changed at Audi and all was sorted. I managed to see it was coming from the radiator as I put a pressure tester on it and after an hour I could see coolant collecting along the seem at the bottom.
Well, I picked up my new (to me) A3 a couple of weeks ago and now this one has started slowly losing water too
I borrowed the pressure tester again and got it up in the air and took off the undertray to look at the bottom of the rad again, but this time everything looks dry. In fact I can't see any dampness or signs of leaks anywhere in the engine bay, it just looks uniformly dusty.
I suppose it's possible it could be the rad, but just leaking from a part further up that I can't see from underneath.
I've tried a new expansion bottle cap on it and that didn't make any difference.
It was topped up to the seam on the bottle when I got it, and in 2 weeks of driving (400 miles or so) it's dropped about an inch in the bottle.
I always check it when it's cold, first thing in the morning and it's always parked on level ground in the same place, so I know it's a fair comparison.
It drives perfectly and I haven't noticed any white smoke/steam from the exhaust.
On the early BKD engines there was the issue with porous heads (coded A/B) and possibly the EGR cooler, but this new type engine is laid out very differently and I can't even find the EGR cooler to see if it has any external leaks visible.
Has anyone got any ideas if there are any known issues with leaks on the common rail engines?
Or anything else I can try. I'm reluctant to take it into Audi for investigation as they'll start replacing things to eliminate them and that'll cost a fortune that I don't have after paying for the car.
Also, the warranty expired about a month ago, do Audi offer any sort of assistance when things go wrong just outside of warranty, or is it a strict deadline and I'm on my own? It does have a full Audi service history.
Can anybody give me some good news concerning this as it's taking the shine off owning my new car
On my '07 I had a problem where it was losing water which thankfully turned out to be the rad. I had this changed at Audi and all was sorted. I managed to see it was coming from the radiator as I put a pressure tester on it and after an hour I could see coolant collecting along the seem at the bottom.
Well, I picked up my new (to me) A3 a couple of weeks ago and now this one has started slowly losing water too
I borrowed the pressure tester again and got it up in the air and took off the undertray to look at the bottom of the rad again, but this time everything looks dry. In fact I can't see any dampness or signs of leaks anywhere in the engine bay, it just looks uniformly dusty.
I suppose it's possible it could be the rad, but just leaking from a part further up that I can't see from underneath.
I've tried a new expansion bottle cap on it and that didn't make any difference.
It was topped up to the seam on the bottle when I got it, and in 2 weeks of driving (400 miles or so) it's dropped about an inch in the bottle.
I always check it when it's cold, first thing in the morning and it's always parked on level ground in the same place, so I know it's a fair comparison.
It drives perfectly and I haven't noticed any white smoke/steam from the exhaust.
On the early BKD engines there was the issue with porous heads (coded A/B) and possibly the EGR cooler, but this new type engine is laid out very differently and I can't even find the EGR cooler to see if it has any external leaks visible.
Has anyone got any ideas if there are any known issues with leaks on the common rail engines?
Or anything else I can try. I'm reluctant to take it into Audi for investigation as they'll start replacing things to eliminate them and that'll cost a fortune that I don't have after paying for the car.
Also, the warranty expired about a month ago, do Audi offer any sort of assistance when things go wrong just outside of warranty, or is it a strict deadline and I'm on my own? It does have a full Audi service history.
Can anybody give me some good news concerning this as it's taking the shine off owning my new car