3rd radiator pinhole leak - possible danger found

Sbeghan

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Location
Triangle, NC
TDI
03 Jetta Wagon 5spd 390k mi
Coolant can inhibit epoxies from sticking but they make aluminum epoxies that will work great on this. You can aluminum solder using zinc rods and a propane torch. Look up alumiweld. Messy stuff though. I would do epoxy.
 

jswjr600

New member
Joined
Nov 22, 2013
Location
TN
TDI
none
10 years ago I had a car with a pin hole in the AC evaporator. Called a friend in the appliance repair business and he said 'they make special epoxies for that'. Did not want to wait till the next day and used JB Weld. It was 10PM at night and I needed the car the next morning. Still have the car and the repair is fine.
I would think an aluminum patch could be made and glued on with JB Weld. But you have to ask yourself - Do you feel lucky? If the repair fails you could overheat the engine.
I had an aprilia motorcycle that I laid down and it pulled an embossed radiator mount from the radiator. I used jb weld to plug it and it worked fine for 6 years. I do not recall the material the radiator was, but would bet aluminum.
 

Kevrev

Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2014
Location
Kansas
TDI
2013 VW Golf TDI , DSG
Since I'm going on a trip soon I removed my fan shroud yesterday to discover mine is nearly rubbed through also. I filed down rub spot on shroud and glued on some thick metal washers for additional spacing. Wanted to replace my coolant(51K Miles) but having difficulty getting lower hose off...any tips? Took clip off the quick disconnect but dosen't seem to want to budge. Might just take it to dealer to let them change coolant and give them an earful about this whole mess of an issue.
 

tdi90hp

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2002
Location
Canuckland
TDI
2011 Golf TDI 6 speed(gone but NEVER forgotten)
Bump for the latest victim!

My 2010 Golf threw the low coolant warning over the weekend. Topped it off and the light came back on yesterday. Pulled the fan shroud and yep, one holed radiator. Guess I'll be performing some surgery on the shroud before putting it back in.

I may look at adding some grommets to the mounting screws to put some clearance between it and the (new) radiator.

At least the radiator isn't that expensive ($228 at my local dealer)

Yay for me!

Jim
2010 Golf TDI 6MT, 112,000 miles
Shall we add the "radiator" to the growing list of long term challenges on a CR equipped vehicle? I just don't hear of radiators as being issues with other makes of cars...another fail long term. I love vws...under warranty!
I am sorry this is not acceptable anymore.
 

tditom

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 5, 2001
Location
Jackson, MI
TDI
formerly: 2001 Golf GL, '97 Passat (RIP) '98 NB, '05 B5 sedan
Since I'm going on a trip soon I removed my fan shroud yesterday to discover mine is nearly rubbed through also. I filed down rub spot on shroud and glued on some thick metal washers for additional spacing. Wanted to replace my coolant(51K Miles) but having difficulty getting lower hose off...any tips? Took clip off the quick disconnect but dosen't seem to want to budge. Might just take it to dealer to let them change coolant and give them an earful about this whole mess of an issue.
There is no reason to replace the coolant at 51k mi. Most VW coolant looks pristine at 100k mi intervals when the water pump is replaced.
 

Hwy_Demon

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2008
Location
Milton, Ontario
TDI
2010 Jetta TDi
So any good news on the Repaired front? For those who have done the repair?

I have stopped the leak temporarily with aluminum powder but it has come back and worse then before.

Gonna have to do this so just wondering if the fix actually fixed the problem?
 

whiteTDIpowa

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2011
Location
Canada
TDI
2015 Golf TDI, 2011 Jetta TDI (sold)
2011 jetta TDi has fallen victim to this as well @ 82,340kms I just ran out of warranty at 80,000kms. So doesn't look like I will be getting this covered if I went to VW.

Dealer quoted me $450 for a new radiator without any labor etc.

I will be going with a oem replacement radiator from nissen instead.

I haven't taken my rad out yet, I can still drive around as the leak isn't very fast, just always have a jug of VW antifreeze in the trunk for now.
 

shutterfly

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2005
Location
Houston, TX
TDI
2010 JSW
Did mine yesterday. The whole thing turned out to be a 6.5 hour job, during which 3 were spent on removing the passenger side hose. Thanks for JLMurphy's suggestion, I finally decided to saw it off, I couldn't find any other ways possible.
Lessens learned:
1: Removing the passenger side wheel doesn't help removing the hose easier. There are A/C tubings blocking the way;
2: When refilling coolant, it's good to leave the small tubing open on the driver side hose, and close it after you see liquid pouring out. It servers as a good bleed valve

As to cause of the problem, here are some pictures:
This is the leaking point:

It's cause by this:

The fan harness was not installed flush. As the fan shroud keeps banging due to vibration the radiator over the years, eventually it knocked open a hole.
To prevent it from happening again, I inserted some insulation foam in between radiator and shroud ribs:




This shows a serious design problem: The shroud case is very flimsy, when it's installed so closely to radiator, it wiggles easily and it's a matter of time when it punches a whole on the radiator. I have worked on Nissan and Toyota before and their should case design is a lot more rigid.

Well that wasn't so bad.

My local dealer had the radiator in stock (coincidence? :rolleyes:) and I installed it today. Took about 2 hours start to finish (I had removed the fan shroud previously, so that saved some time)

A couple of things. First, those stupid radiator quick connects are a pain in the rear to get off. I managed to wiggle the top one off after a while but the lower one was not going to budge and I couldn't figure out a way to get more leverage on it. In the end I decided to simply cut the radiator outlet off as close to the radiator as a I could using a mini hacksaw.

Once that was off I removed the radiator from the car. It came straight up and out, no problems.




Once the radiator was out I removed the lower outlet from the hose and put the cut off end in a vice with a piece of pipe stuck in it to prevent it from collapsing. Then I just tapped on the quick connect with a soft faced hammer and it popped off.


Putting the new radiator in was straightforward. I put some cardboard over the inner face of the core to prevent damage to the fins and it slipped right in. I put a tiny bit of lithium grease on the quick connects and they went on as easy as you please.

I added some spacers to the shroud to try to prevent a recurrence of the problem. I had a plastic drill size guide lying around and cut some spacers out of that. I glued 2 per hole location to give ~1/8" additional clearance.


Filled it back up with coolant and took it for a spin. No leaks so far, so fingers crossed. :)

Jim
 

DubmyRUCA

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
TDI
12' 4dr Golf TDI
Great information, thanks to everyone who posted. I'm going to pull the shroud in the next few weeks and do something to prevent this from happening. I like the spacer idea but does anyone think that will reduce the cooling ability since it seems it would leave a solid gap around the whole shroud and prevent the fans from actually pulling air through the rad?
 

GTSLOW

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2010
Location
Fort Knox, Kentucky
TDI
15 GSW & 04 Golf
Sorry to necro this but I think this may be where my 2012 Jetta is leaking. Mine has a very small leak somewhere. Uses maybe an ounce or two every week or so. But the smell is driving me nuts! I'm thinking the fans kicking on and pulling air past the radiator is picking up that antifreeze smell that I'm picking up on while stopped at a light.

Has anyone experienced this with an MK6 Jetta?
 

Ol'Rattler

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Location
PNA
TDI
2006 BRM Jetta
this whole thing stinks as much as my ongoing freying seat threads debacle, but I grabbed a $200 http://www.nissens.com OEM radiator and learned how to do it myself, so something came good out of it and I think I actually found a solution to the problem as well. The other thing was I wasn't going to bend over and let them do me with their $950.
They do charge you extra for the sand and Vaseline service, don't they?
 

ricks

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Location
False City, WA.
TDI
'10 Jetta Sportwagen
Great thread. For the last couple of years when the 2010 JSW is shut off and walking by the front there is just a slight wif of antifreeze. Looks like time to investigate.
 

brads

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 6, 1999
Location
Los Angeles
TDI
2010 Golf TDI 6sp W/Euro GTD-LED tails Neuspeed flash + VCDS Mods
Wow it's been 5 years since I posted this article, glad it has been of some use. I have not had another issue with the radiator and I have 116k miles on.
 

3fordasho

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2012
Location
Southern MN
TDI
15 Passat 6M
I've noticed the slight scent of antifreeze from the front of my 12 JSW for the past 8-10 months- a 2012 with 58K. Seems a bit low in the overflow bottle as well. Could very well be this issue but I'll never know as it went back to VW on April 30th. I guess they can fix it, crush it or whatever.
 

MikeTheSpike

New member
Joined
May 18, 2017
Location
Pretoria
TDI
VW Caddy Maxi 1.9 TDI
I have a 2010 Caddy Maxi 1.9 TDI. In December 2012 I noticed coolant leaking with the corresponding STOP! Check Coolant warning. My distance covered was around 60k kilometeres. The VW agent told me I had hit a rock and must pay for a new radiator. I drove to the dealership and asked to see where there was body damage to the vehicle and show me how a rock could get up through the underfloor cover plate. Its impossible with the cover plate on to even get your hand in underneath to touch the radiator.

His story suddenly changed and he told me he would do me a favour and file a warranty claim. The radiator was replaced and I thought it was the end of my woes.

Vehicle just went for a 120K service now and is out of warranty. and guess what, the radiator leak is back, and worst of all it is in the same place as before. So I queried this and had the workshop manager put her up on a lift and take the cover plates off. While doing that another mechanic was there and told me they normally replace the fan cowling as a standard as it usually is the cause of the rubbing though.

So it means that a repair was only half done under warranty and not completed correctly, leading to a second failure of a radiator in exactly the same spot.

From reading this thread here it becomes apparent that VW know that this is an issue with the radiator and cowling, and have known about this since at least July 2012 but have not done anything until someone complains or takes them on about this issue.

My question is: What is my recourse for finding that they only did a 1/2 repair under warranty?

Should I get the factory rep and the workshop manager to explain this to me?
 

five6four

Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2020
Location
Philly area
TDI
2011 JSW
sorry to bring this thread back but im going to hopefully change out my radiator soon, and was looking for a decent writeup or video of the process. I had this thread bookmarked but it looks like in the changeover to the new forum, some of the old photos in here are gone. Tried searching here, youtube, and vortex but couldnt find anything else. any help is appreciated.

also, i just opened up the new radiator i recieved and was concerned about the bottom here, is this anything i should worry about and contact idparts about a replacement?


 

crashtested

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2010
Location
Nelson, BC
TDI
2016 Q5 TDI Technik, 2014 GSW CL 6MT (RIP), 2004 Jetta GLS 5MT (sold), 2010 GSW HL 6MT (buy back)
I'd send that back for a new one.
 
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