On starting today I had an alarm to check coolant. Never had this before - and the expansion tank was dry. No visible signs of loss - Oil seems fine and free from contaminant.. so I guess not the head gasket!
View 4 RepliesI have a 2005 Cadillac CTS with a 2.8 V-6. I have changed the Mobil One oil when ever the oil life has hit 50% since the car was new. I have 122,000 miles on the car now. In just the past few months I have noticed the coolant level going down at a rate of about 1/4 inch ever week with no visible signs of any leaks. I have pressured tested the radiator and the test comes back with no pressure loss. I also am losing about a 1/3 to a 1/2 quart of oil ever week with no signs of any leaks or smoke out of the exhaust pipe. I drive about 600 miles a week. My son is a tech at the local Chevrolet dealer. He has looked over the car and can find no visible cause for the fluid loss.
View 2 RepliesOur '03 Infiniti I35 lost large amounts of coolant each time on 2 long trips but when we did a pressure check, we couldn't get it to leak anywhere we could see and no visible signs of where it may have leaked while driving (no drip lines, puddles, etc.). We're not sure where the water pump is located, but have been told it's internal to the engine, so how can we tell if it's gone bad? Would the coolant burn off with no visible signs? We changed the radiator cap but no change. We use a trusted shade tree mechanic, but he's stumped.
View 7 RepliesMy Phaeton (V8) is overheating when the outside temperature is around 0 C (+/-10 C).
It rises all the way to 130 C, the warning signs comes up, it stays there for about a minute and than the fans kick on and the T goes back to normal.
It has been doing that for the last three years intermittently in the spring and fall.
This season it is getting more persistent and it is occurring pretty much every time I use the car (usually not more that once per cycle, a cycle being from the time the engine is started to shut down).
The dealership can't seem to find the problem. The thermostat was replaced at the same time that the water pump and timing belt were replaced and it did not solved the problem.
Coolant overheat warning. Luckily, was moments from home so pulled in and stopped for about 6 hours. Checked coolant on level surface...looks ok. Started it up and drove around neighborhood. Car steadily climbs to 200 degrees F and then will sit there for around 5 minutes. As oil temperature breaks the halfway point, the coolant temp begins to steadily rise again until it hits just below to overheat mark for a couple minutes, then finally pushes through into the red.
Parked car overnight.
Drove to VW repair shop. Exact same results driving there. Temp increases from ignition to 200 degrees over a couple minutes then stops for 5+ minutes. Oil gets hot, coolant gets hot, I get very hot.Only 10 Months ago, I replaced the timing belt, water pump, and thermostat with genuine parts. I know what a pain in the arse it is to change these items so I did them all at once. I am sick thinking about having to do it yet again with these apes poking around my car.
On a few occasion, usually during cool weather, the engine temperature rises up to 130 C, the coolant overheating warning comes on for a few about a minute or two and then the temperature goes back to normal (90 C.)
The car has 106,000 km. I purchased it last summer from an independent use car dealer. I inquired about the car calling the previous owner. He did mentioned that the only problem he ever experience was that the car overheated on a few occasion during the winter months (cooler weather).
Could it be that the thermostat needs to be replaced?
I have a V8 engine, and I have been getting the coolant overheating warning come on once in a while.
The engine fans go crazy, and the temperature needle on the small round gauge climbs all the way to red then the coolant overheating warning comes on in dash screen.
This can happen right after I turn the car on, or on occasion, it can happen as I am driving around the city.
I stop, switch the car off, and I turn it back on after a minute, and the car is just fine. So, basically, it doesn't seem like the engine coolant is actually overheating, but the fans and warning systems seem to think that they are. The fans are pretty loud, and its noticeable when they go on, and when this happens, I know that the needle will go all the way up and the warning will go off. I also know that if I turn the car off for a minute, and it will be just fine.
The conditions are random for when this happens. So its not when its particularly hot or cold or anything predictable. Could this just be a sticky thermostat? Is it a bad water pump? Bad battery?
The trouble is that now I am afraid I cant take a real drive. Around the city I can just pull over, but I am afraid to take the car two hours out or something.
While driving my 04 w12 a few months ago i noticed a "stutter" or brief jerk while driving. the next morning i had a "coolant level" warning. i took the car to a mechanic i use who diagnosed the problem as a broken coolant line involving the transmission cooler, with the result that coolant migrated to the atf. indication was that the tranny was toast, along with the atf cooler. I authorized a repair (not inexpensive), keeping costs down by installing a used tranny. since the car was "fixed" i still got a "jerk" usually in fourth gear, sometimes in third. i took the car back and was told that the tranny was flushed numerous times and the transmission was reflashed. i picked the car up yesterday, but i still get the "jerks", now usually in third gear.
View 3 RepliesLast weekend, while i was replacing a brake light bulb on my daughters car (!) , i had to use my car to get the bulb from the local store and guess what my "check lights" warning came on and since then a broken light bulb is showing on the left side of the center display and it does not go away anymore.
I have now at least checked every (visible) light bulb on the car twice and I can not find any bad one. Yesterday I checked the fuses and again all are fine.
Looking through the owners handbook (section 3 and 4), i can not even find any mentioning of the "bad light bulb" symbol.
So, here are my questions:
Is the orange (turnsignal) bar under the headlights used for anything else ?
I have returned from abroad after 7 weeks, and my late 2004 Phaeton (3.2 Petrol) has taken a day to "power up" and for some warning icons to disappear. After two days, I have the "Check Brake Pads" warning on. It happened only an hour ago. My breaks feel okay. The car has done 28000 miles.
View 24 RepliesEvery few days I get an orange warning that says "check lights" for about 2 seconds. I am assuming that soon I will have to replace some of the bulbs. I understand that doing it at the dealer its a very expansive item, and that is not covered by warranty.
View 9 RepliesJust got my car back from it's recent service. The trunk wire harness was replaced under extended warranty. I noticed a light bulb emblem on my front center screen but continued on to the grocery. Upon starting car after leaving grocery I received a "check lights" warning on that screen for several seconds. Since the chain of events have been
1) Repair TPMS control module, and this leads to
2) Repair motor that raises rear privacy shield which led to
3) All 5 tire sensors needing replaced, which led immediately to
4) Trunk harness needing replaced and now I have this light issue.
I've literally left the car dealership after the last 3 services with new problems to deal with.
I have experienced a strange error 3 times now in the last few weeks. It appears that one or both of the headlights go out for a second or two; this if followed by a audible "beep" and a warning indication flashes over the center dash screen that states "check lights" or similar. A second or two later the front light(s) are back on. The warning is orange or yellow in color. My Phaeton has just over 37k miles.
View 6 RepliesI just received a check headlight signal on the dash. I did a visual check and it was the passenger high discharge lamp. I thought i saw a post on here one time at how to trouble shoot this or even change the lamp.
View 7 RepliesHe owns a 2002 W12 and apparently, within a day, dew appeared into his front right headlight and rear right tail light...
View 23 RepliesToday I had the joy of covering 200+ miles on my W12 today. While I was out and about there were 3-4 times I went around a right hand turn somewhat quickly and a "check please lights" warning appeared on the instrument cluster. At the end of the day I inspected the exterior lights with all working or so it seems. I found it odd that this only appeared during sharp turns to the right.
View 10 RepliesA couple of days ago, my "Check Lights" warning came on as I used the right turn signal. After inspecting all of the lights on the outside of the car, I could see that the red led rear turn signal group was out (although it has sporadically come on a couple of times since then).
Just to be sure, I checked all of the related fuses in the front and rear fuse blocks, but they were all fine. It seems to me that this may either be a lose fitting or (since the tail lights are installed as one unit) I may have to have the right rear entire tail light group replaced.
Before I drop the car off at the dealer, looking for instructions as to how I could investigate further (open up the tail light and look for a lose wire) ?
It's been pretty cold the last few days and tonight when I was coming home the car told me to stop and check the coolant.. and servicve manual....what does this mean...I have read to check the coolant level (pink G12 stuff)...the resevoir is full....could something be frozen??
View 7 RepliesWhen I start up the car in the morning, the infamous "STOP!! CHECK COOLANT LEVEL" warning will come on, and then shortly thereafter it will go away. I topped off the coolant level (with the pink stuff of course) and yet this light will come on occasionally. It mostly comes on first thing in the morning when the car is started up and cold, and *sometimes* come on when the car is warm. Fluid level is all topped off. What gives?
I was reading that there is a fluid level sensor that sometimes goes bad? could this be it? I changed the coolant temp sensor back in the summer of this year. (not sure if that has anything to do with it?) Not sure if I have a leak, cause I look under the car in the morning and I have no spots of coolant anywhere.
I started loosing a bunch of coolant on my tdi which is still under 36k and there is no visible leaks anywhere
Took the car to the dealer last night to get it checked out and they were ready to send me back home telling me there is no issue since they don't see any leaks under the car
Either way after telling them that I have already gone through 2 gallons of coolant they decided to top off the coolant and ask me to drive 200 miles.
I drove 156 miles last night since I need to get this issue resolved and now the coolant tank is empty again... sitting at the dealer while I'm typing this.
How the rear, high center mounted brake light (ie "3rd brake light") intermittently lights individual bulbs, but never all at once. It was also causing an annoying "Check Brake Lights" warning plus beep on the dash (on every brake). Till I get it sorted I simply disconnected the 3rd brake light which completely turned it off and just gave me one warning/beep (instead of lots of them).
I spoke to VW about it yesterday and wasnt impressed by their attitude, so last night I tried plugging it back in to see if it was still the same now that my battery should be topped up due to change of house and longer trips. To my surprise at first it worked perfectly, all bulbs lit up.
However the more I tested, the less lights lit up. It was quite strange, they would "dance" on an off right in front of me. Wiggling the wiring had a small effect, but it didnt seem to be a wiring issue. So I plugged it out and left it was it was (disabled). However to my annoyance on my trip in today, I start getting repeated "Check Brake Light" warnings beeps (remember, its disconnected so it should do it once only) and even more irritating every time the warning came up on the dash the front left headlamp would flash on and off once! What the hell is going on with the lighting system!