Coolant disappears from resivoir immediatly upon starting 2014 jetta.
Asked by DTVS Oct 01, 2016 at 11:42 AM about the 2014 Volkswagen Jetta SE
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
So at first Its was just some water to top it off every few weeks. but now as soon as I turn on the car, even if I have just filled it, it tells me its empty. there isn't antifreeze spray everywhere and I cant seem to find a leak. so far it hasn't over heated and nothing smells like its burning when I pop the hood after driving. so Im kind of at a loss. any direction would be appreciated.
6 Answers
Get the cooling system pressure tested, that will tell you if it is leaking. You don't mention what engine you have or how many miles are on it, or how hard it's been driven. If this happens to have a turbo w/ water-cooled intercooler, that might be where it is leaking. Other potential coolant leak source is the EGR cooler, in both cases the coolant is being burned off with the exhaust so no visible sign of a leak outside the vehicle.
I believe it's the 1.8 turbo, unless the engine cover just says tsi on it. It's at about 50k miles. And I drive it like, well, it's the autobahn. Except currently cause I don't want to hurt it. Thanks I'll check that out.
I'd place my bet on a leaky intercooler, especially at the rate you're losing coolant. Those run about a hundred bucks, can be installed with basic tools.
Is it possible I put too much water in and it's over pressurizing it and pushing it out the over flow?
That would only happen at first or if you had air trapped in the system, once it expelled the excess coolant it wouldn't continue to happen. A bad head gasket however could over-pressure a cooling system, and force out or boil coolant. You can do a simple check for a bad head gasket with something like "Block Tester," which looks for hydrocarbons in the coolant from combustion. A compression test of the cylinders may also indicate a bad gasket, if one or more cylinders are much lower than the others.
