After having my 75000km service performed on my MKV Golf R32, in mid April, which included a coolant flush. (See footnote for the Coolant Saga Details below).


Over the weekend I started getting the "Check Coolant Alert", this happened Saturday morning, and so I topped it up. Then on Saturday night I get the "Check Coolant Alert" again, so I top it up again. Up until this point (and over the past 2 years for that matter), I've never seen any evidence/puddle on the garage floor that would indicate I had a coolant leak. So this ‘rapid loss’ of coolant only started occurring after my service.

(There are details with the workshop that performed the 75000km, which I'm leaving out, as I just want to focus on the coolant issue, but yes I did contact them after the service and advised them of the coolant alerts)


Sunday morning, I get up and check under the car/garage floor for a leak...... absolutely dry as a bone..... nil, nothing at all. I check the coolant reservoir and the level is close to the MIN line, I top it up. Up until this point I've gone through 2 bottles of G12 coolant, just from topping it up, (from memory each bottle is approx 1.5 litres), I've also topped it up with approx 1 litre of water.

Sunday morning, I drive the car to the shops, go shopping, come back to the car park and check for a leak...... BINGO, we have a winner!!! There is pink coolant on the ground (wasn't there before as I made sure to check as I parked the car). It's not a huge puddle, maybe about the size of a small dinner plate. I check under the car and can see pink coolant drops hanging off different parts of the engine etc...... For reference, the position of the puddle in relation to the car is, it's approx in line with the front axle and kind of more on the left hand side, it's close to the centre of the car, but definitely more towards the left hand side.

Having lost faith with my regular workshop who performed the 75000km service and coolant flush, I contact RAMSPEED (RAMSPEED AUTOMOTIVE) on Monday morning, I speak to Dean @ RAMSPEED and give him the rundown on my coolant issue and arrange to bring the car in at lunchtime that day (I thought they may have been fully booked out etc and I might have to wait a few days before bringing it in so was more then happy to be able to bring it in that day). I drop the car off and Dean lets me know that the guys will try and take a look at it this afternoon, if not then tomorrow morning..... I'm cool with this.

I get a call at 5:00pm from Dean that the guys have isolated the leak, it's coming from the cooling hose which connects up to the rear of the cylinder head. They've also performed a pressure test on the cooling system and compression test on the head (rest of my cooling system is OK and my head gasket is also OK). They're going to order in the hose and also a new coolant reservoir and flush the entire cooling system. They hope to have the parts delivered the following and the car ready by 5:00pm the next day.

I get a call from Dean on Tuesday @ 3:30 letting me know that the parts have arrived and the car should be ready by 5:00 for pickup.

I arrive @ RAMSPEED @ 5:00 and see that the guys still have the car on the hoist are doing the final finishing touches.

I pay the bill and am very satisfied with the work and customer service from RAMSPEED!!! I drive away feeling I can really trust these guys to do a good job….

It’s now 2 weeks since RAMSPEED fixed up the leak and no more coolant leaking, coolant level hasn’t change and my contaminated coolant issue also seems to have been resolved.

I can highly recommend the guys @ RAMSPEED. Big thumbs up!!!! I'll definitely be heading back...... (I'm still on my original brakes and am looking at slotted discs and (less dust producing) pads, so the guys @ RAMSPEED will be getting the job in the not to distant future!!!

Contaminated Coolant Saga Details:
Over the past 2 years my coolant has had a (bad) habit of becoming contaminated/rusty/orange look to it with fine grainy sediment in the coolant reservoir, took back to the dealer back in 2011, no fault found was the diagnosis, with the comment 'someone must have used the wrong coolant which has contaminated the coolant' the Standard Spiel you get from the dealer.... I had topped up the coolant approx 6 months prior to taking it to the dealer in 2011 as it was low.....using G12 coolant, bought from the dealer......(used the wrong coolant, yeah right). So I took it to a local workshop and had the coolant flushed and coolant reservoir replaced. Approx every 6 months or so, I'd have to top it up.... but my coolant was never a bright pink colour, there was always some signs of contamination left behind.



This is what my coolant looked like after my 75000km service: (less then 2 weeks after being flushed)


This was the hose: (I'm pretty sure this is the source of my coolant being contaminated....it had a lot of the orange sediment bits inside of the hose near the crack (circled on the right in red).



This is the new coolant reservoir: (nice and clean!!!)




Hopefully this experience helps others out there!!!

Cheers
SouthPaw