I didn't remove the silica bag in my Passat and have paid the consequences

Hi all,
I suppose this is a bit of a PSA for people to consider removing the silica bag in the coolant expansion tank in their Passat (or other Volkswagen AG car that contains one).

A couple of weeks ago I was driving about 60km/hr when a warning to check the coolant appeared on the dashboard of my 2019 132TSI Passat.
I pulled over, popped the bonnet and noted that there was still coolant in the expansion tank.

Plugged in my ODB scanner to monitor temperature and drove 10-15km home, noting that it didn't overheat at any point.

Once the car cooled down I checked the coolant tank and noticed that the silica bag had violently ruptured (and its contents were nowhere to be seen). The plastic part that links up with the coolant return/re circulation hose had also cracked, assuming because the pressure went up when the bag ruptured.

I spent a lot of time pleading my case with Volkswagen that this is a known quality fault/defect, but they have been extremely unhelpful and told many flat out lies on-record (not going to bother listing them but they were laughable).
The dealer attempted to manipulate and distract me, and I ultimately caved and just got them to replace the coolant tank, flush and re-fill coolant for $850 after they threatened my car if I report them to the ACCC or consumer affairs.

A line from one of my recent emails was "your concerns regarding [dealer] Volkswagen retaliating by voiding your warranty are valid and we take these concerns seriously. We appreciate your decision to not escalate to ACCC or consumer affairs".

They 100% know they've knowingly avoided obligations under consumer law (hence the manipulation and lies) but this won't go anywhere because ACCC/consumer affairs don't assist with individual cases and it's not cost-effective to do VCAT.

All this to say: Remove the bag, or have someone else do it, to save yourself the headache.

Its yet another silly useless invention, supposedly to make the coolant last longer, yet somehow designed to fail prematurely due to the fact they are inside a plastic mesh bag which splits open and allows the silica to spread all through your coolant system, making a horrible mess in the process.

I had the same thing happen to my Audi a few years ago - I do regular checks under the bonnet to check oil/coolant etc and all of a sudden I notice my coolant is this horrible brown rust colour. At this time I was not even aware of the silica bags inside the overflow tank - so I had no idea what had happened. What an annoying mess to clean all that brown coolant out as it stains everything. I flushed my cooling system about 10-12 times over the space of a few weeks with distilled water and various radiator cleaners like this RADIATOR FLUSH | Penrite Oil , driving around for several days with just water (or water plus cleaner) in the cooling system, before draining it and refilling again. In the end I finally got the system clean, but the overflow tank was horribly stained, so I bought a new overflow tank to satisfy my OCD. Unfortunately the new overflow tank also has a silica bag in it (which cannot be accessed to remove it), so the coolant tank will be something to periodically repace as preventative maintenance every 4-5 years. They are cheap enough so no biggie now that I know about it.

Sorry to hear you also experienced this.
The new tank VW put in doesn't contain a silica bag, nor does it have the 'mit silikat' mark.

When I asked about it on pick-up "does the new tank have a silica bag" they refused to answer yes or no multiple times.
I'm assuming this is to avoid admission of fault/defect.

Will just be changing the coolant every few years now.

Well at least on the round coolant tank they use on the Golf / Passat etc you can use a pair of long needle pliers and retrieve the silica bag - I did this myself on my Golf a few years ago. But if your new tank does not have mit silikat written on it then it probably does not have it anyway.

Unfortunately the Audi I have has a much larger coolant tank with various chambers built into it, and although you can see the silica bag through the translucent plastic, you cant access it unfortunately.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cruzym8

Hi all,
I suppose this is a bit of a PSA for people to consider removing the silica bag in the coolant expansion tank in their Passat (or other Volkswagen AG car that contains one).

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Thanks for this reminder. I have been meaning to take care of this but haven't got around to it. On my 2016 Passat Alltrack Diesel the silica bag is not accessible due to double walled coolant tank. So i will need to replace the coolant tank with one which has no bag.

It really is worth doing.
I probably had a pretty mild case - stopped driving and it didn't wreak too much havoc.
Could have been much worse and VW reckon everything is fine and normal and refuse to acknowledge the flaw.
Get rid of it mate.