Coolant lost - in South France on holiday

[stevieg21]

Hi All, looking for advice from you good knowledgeable people …

T6 66plate 2.0 tdi t32 122,000 miles full service history owned by me one year.

Saturday AM I’m Driving home to U.K. in the south France the red coolant light comes on. Pulls over and I can see coolant below minimum so added in 2 litres of water. It’s a really hot day 39 degrees but the van is driving normal, there’s no sign of water leak anywhere. Carry on driving, and again everything seems fine, temperature needle steady at its normal vertical position at 90 degrees. But after just 20 miles the light back on. Pulls over and this time no coolant at all is in the expansion tank. No sign of leak. Long story short, towed off motorway (thankyou AA European) and to a nearby Citroen garage. It’s Weekend so everywhere closed.

Im a single dad with 3 kids, and broken down van 1000 miles from home. So AA gets us all home on a train. I’m now home in U.K. but van is still in France waiting for diagnosis. Depending on result likely outcome is repair it and I collect or un repairable and recovered back to U.K.

My questions to you so I am prepared when I next speak to AA …
1. Do I need the diagnosis done by VW?
2. What is it likely to be? Egr or worse?
3. Is there anything from this information or any test that would pinpoint problem?
4. Any other advice

Thanks all for reading

 

[Loz]

Could be egr cooler or head gasket of cracked head.
I would have it repatriated and repaired in the UK.

 

[stevieg21]

Update it’s maybe not as bad as I feared …

“Hello,
primary diagnosis is :
shock absorbers, radiator hose, rear right mud screen
Garage will send a detailed quote and you will be updated soon.
The AA

I scratched my head over this for a good bit thinking what the hell are they going on about. Then thought it was originally a VW Shuttle so would have probably had a heater in rear right wheel arch. It’s lowered with 20” wheels, i d just filled up with diesel in Spain and had 60 litres of water in the on board tank, luggage etc so a big weight on the back and did hit some dips going through Pyrenees mountains on their motorway so maybe rear right tyre rubbed through a coolant pipe. Does this sound feasible? Mud screen I guess they mean wheel arch inner trim. And when tilted to get on low loader there was a small amount of water somewhere from the right rear which me and mechanic looked at but then decided was from the sink. I didn’t think there’d be coolant back there.
Desperately hoping I’m right, hoping they just cap off or reroute those redundant coolant pipes.

 

[Loz]

Yes very feasible, there is a post on here showing the rear pipe corrode through. I just checked and it was a rear aircon hose corroded through. I'm not sure you can see any water hoses there but not impossible.

You said that there was no coolant dropped, so I assumed it had been consumed, but I guess you weren't expecting to look for coolant at the rear?

 

[stevieg21]

Yes very feasible, there is a post on here showing the rear pipe corrode through. I just checked and it was a rear aircon hose corroded through. I'm not sure you can see any water hoses there but not impossible.

You said that there was no coolant dropped, so I assumed it had been consumed, but I guess you weren't expecting to look for coolant at the rear?

Yes, I opened the bonnet to see / listen if any was spraying out or dripping and looked under the front only. It's really low and has an under tray so not easy to check. It wasnt until the van was hoisted to a steep angle that I spotted some at the rear right wheel but I didnt think it could be coolant back there so assumed a bit of drainage from the vans sink. Fingers crossed. Thanks for your interest. feel so helpless