STOP - Check Coolant!

[Grant]

'99 GT TDI 115bhp

When we start the car from cold the dash nearly always comes up with STOP - Check Coolant. If you drive about 100-200 yards (out of our estate basically) this goes off and its fine until its restarted from cold-ish again.

I've checked the coolant and the level is fine, if I squeeze the hoses going to and from the rad the water moves about in the expansion bottle so I'm assuming its cycling round correctly, and the car runs at spot on 90 degrees when it gets up to temp

Any ideas?

[diesel nut]

i had the same put a extra cup of water in the header tank

[bobdobelina]

Had the same problem on mine. Replaced the expansion tank and cap at a cost of around £15 and a 15 min job to do yourself. No problems since. Tank has level sensor built into it so assuming that was faulty although no problem showed in a fault scan with vagcom.

[aBoijj]

'99 GT TDI 115bhp

When we start the car from cold the dash nearly always comes up with STOP - Check Coolant. If you drive about 100-200 yards (out of our estate basically) this goes off and its fine until its restarted from cold-ish again.

I've checked the coolant and the level is fine, if I squeeze the hoses going to and from the rad the water moves about in the expansion bottle so I'm assuming its cycling round correctly, and the car runs at spot on 90 degrees when it gets up to temp

Any ideas?

The water must be stone cold when you check it - it'll start rising when the pressure builds up after you start the engine