Orange Water

[ANDY GT]

:aargh4: HELLO ALL, I'VE RECENTLY BOUGHT A PASSAT 110 TDI '99 AND I NOTICED A LARGE ORANGE STAIN ON THE BULK HEAD AREA UNDER THE EXPANSION TANK. I TOOK OFF THE COOLANT CAP AND IT'S ORANGE AND CRUSTY INSIDE. I HAVE TO KEEP TOPPING UP THE COOLANT. MY QUESTION IS DO YOU THINK IT'S JUST A FAULTY CAP AND WHY IS IT ORANGE. I DON'T GET ANY OVER HEATING AND IT DOSN'T SEEM TO BE PRESSURISING MORE THAN YOU WOULD EXPECT.PLEASE HELP.

[philglasgow]

have you checked the oil filler cap for emulsified oil, sounds like youve got an over heating problem possibly needing a head gasket , does temp gauage move or creep above half way etc,




Phil

[Gavin78]

:aargh4: HELLO ALL, I'VE RECENTLY BOUGHT A PASSAT 110 TDI '99 AND I NOTICED A LARGE ORANGE STAIN ON THE BULK HEAD AREA UNDER THE EXPANSION TANK. I TOOK OFF THE COOLANT CAP AND IT'S ORANGE AND CRUSTY INSIDE. I HAVE TO KEEP TOPPING UP THE COOLANT. MY QUESTION IS DO YOU THINK IT'S JUST A FAULTY CAP AND WHY IS IT ORANGE. I DON'T GET ANY OVER HEATING AND IT DOSN'T SEEM TO BE PRESSURISING MORE THAN YOU WOULD EXPECT.PLEASE HELP.
Sounds like a couple of different problems to me. Firstly the orange water/stains could be due to a build up of corrosion inside the coolant system - maybe due to lack of servicing and/or lack of antifreeze/coolant in the system. Secondly, it is possible that you have a faulty coolant cap or crack in the expansion tank which fails when the system is pressurised.

[ANDY GT]

THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE GUYS, THERE ARE NO SIGNS OF WATER IN THE OIL AND THE TEMP NEVER GOES ABOVE 90. THERE IS A SMALL OUTLET ON THE BOTTOM SIDE OF THE EXPANSION TANK WHICH I BELIEVE IS FOR PRESSURE RELIEF WHICH IS WHAT MADE THINK IT COULD BE THE CAP NOT HOLDING THE CORRECT PRESSURE. ON THE WEEKEND WHEN THE WEATHER WAS REALLY HOT I RAN THE ENGINE FOR AGES TO TRY AND MAKE IT HAPPEN AND IT DIDN'T,SO I'M A BIT PUZZLED AS TO WHEN IT'S HAPPENING AND WHY IT'S RUST COLOUR.:confused:

[Sam]

CAPS LOCK!

Personally I find it a lot easier to read text in the proper case.

Look around the base of the coolant reservoir for leaks, normally you'd be looking for pink deposits, but in this case, orange.

The bottom hose is the culprit in 9 out of 10 cases.

[hitachi]

THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE GUYS, THERE ARE NO SIGNS OF WATER IN THE OIL AND THE TEMP NEVER GOES ABOVE 90. THERE IS A SMALL OUTLET ON THE BOTTOM SIDE OF THE EXPANSION TANK WHICH I BELIEVE IS FOR PRESSURE RELIEF WHICH IS WHAT MADE THINK IT COULD BE THE CAP NOT HOLDING THE CORRECT PRESSURE. ON THE WEEKEND WHEN THE WEATHER WAS REALLY HOT I RAN THE ENGINE FOR AGES TO TRY AND MAKE IT HAPPEN AND IT DIDN'T,SO I'M A BIT PUZZLED AS TO WHEN IT'S HAPPENING AND WHY IT'S RUST COLOUR.:confused: Hi andy gt had same problem with passat tdi, changed expansion bottle & cap new rad & tested water for gasses no luck. other night did pressure test again but this time drove car down road. bad news too much pressure in system. this did not show with car ticking over. hope this helps HITACHI.

[gramey]

Not sure if it's the same on an oil burner but I had a similar problem on a 20V 1.8T. Returned to dealer who I'd bought it from and they thought the head gasket had gone adn possibly warped the head. Anyway on the 1.8T it has a combined water pump/oil cooler, I believe with a contra rotating flow, i.e. water goes round one way and cools the oil going the opposite way,
Turned out it had corroded internally letting oil into the water, the water was slowly leaking the opposite way but didn't show up on the oil filler cap.
Maybe worth a check?http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/images/icons/icon7.gif

[stevegrass777]

Could it just be that someone has mixed G12 antifreeze and normal antifreeze
as this is superposed to go brown?
Unless you are having other problems i would drain water and also blow out heater matrix, totally drain all of it,then replace with G12 or normal glycol but dont mix them...........
Then see if anything else develops.

[onzarob]

Could it just be that someone has mixed G12 antifreeze and normal antifreeze
as this is superposed to go brown?
Unless you are having other problems i would drain water and also blow out heater matrix, totally drain all of it,then replace with G12 or normal glycol but dont mix them...........
Then see if anything else develops.


I'm with you on this, it may have a faulty cap and been topped up with the nearest antifreeze available. flush it and then see.

[minty0_10]

er has no one thought that since he has only just bought the car. that it may have had a head gasket problem in the past and boiled over hence the brown water around the tank. im thinking the head gasket has been changed before the car was sold.

[stevegrass777]

That doesn't explain the brown water in the tank.

[minty0_10]

the waters brown in my tdi

[stevegrass777]

It shouldn't be really it should be purple or pink G12 but if it has been topped up with normal glycol it turns brown.
Then again i don't know when they started to use G12.
It should be changed every now and then and if its brown i would recommend changing it.