I was coming back home today along the M4 when all of a sudden a warning flashed up on the dash saying "STOP!!!" and "Check Coolant". I immediately pulled onto the hard-shoulder after noticing the temp guage was sitting on 130 (MAX) and checked under the hood. The coolant level in the expansion tank was very high, almost to the cap level! I left it for five minutes then turned it over again. Coolant was reading 90 (Normal), so I drove the 1.2 miles to the next services where it overheated again en-route. After a 15 minute wait and no evidence of any leakage or oil in the expansion tank, I drove on. On the 35 mile journey back, it started to overheat approximately 5 times. The only thing that seemed to stop it was to either 'coast', or pull over and let it cool. It doesn't seem to overheat when just idling, but I could be wrong. Seen as it's a mk4 with 85k on the clock, could it be the water pump, or (am I being hopeful here?) the thermostat sticking? Anyone else suffered with this problem? I really need this car to be reliable at the minute due to my work, and time off looks bad.[:^(]
Yank the pump and the stat - but I'd go with a sticky stat given the distance you covered before it went bad. It's white anyway, burn it!
I've tried to burn it, but it's completely flame retardant.[:^(] I'm going with the 'stat too. Not just because it's easy to change, but because I replaced the radiator only 4 weeks ago, and put tons of that sticky G12 shte in. I bet it's gunked up, or something. If it is the water pump, I'm going to park it on Runway 9L at Heathrow.
It should be on G12 anyway - it's only G11 that won't mix. G12+ is fine too. Don't mix pink with blue, but you can mix purple with anything.
if it's never had a water pump it will that ! The fins are plastic 'stuck' on metal shaft, silly design they just fall off, good time to do the cambelt at same time as it runs in there, not too hard on the 2L
Cheers. Yeah, I've just been reading about on UK-MkIV's forum and it seems a very common problem. The annoying thing is, it had the cambelt done only 20k miles ago. I've just been having a look at the engine configuration and it seems a right **** to get to the belt, like I'll have to remove the engine mount? Looks like I'm going to have to try and get hold of a hoist, and a big gun so I can go and meet VW's water pump designer.
put it on a axle stand & use jack with something soft on edge of sump VW pumps are exchange, or for a metal impeller go to ECP, or GFS
Cheers Crispy, I love you. Did the job with my brother and it took just under two hours. We didn't even bother removing the engine mount, just pulled it off the sprockets and back on again! The pump was completely bu ggered, spinning independently of the shaft. Pic of bust pump VW Rubbish vs Ruville replacement Short video of a Colombian-style parts inspection
congratulations old boy. few things are more satisfying than getting it all back up and running again. did mine not long back, took about the same amount of time, i have no leaks either now whats the next job then? lol
