new to tdi, coolant question and unusual cold weather oil indication

hey there- purchased a tdi golf 2000 gls from florida this past july due to selling my toyota tacoma back to them for the rust out buy back plan- 12000 bucks later i figured that the cost of fuel being what it was to buy the diesel. awesome torque car, purchased a 190,000 mile rebuilt engine- new valves pistons rings turbo, in great garaged florida shape. 6 weeks later timing belt slips due to properly installed yet faulty timing belt tensioner, 1900 bucks later its all back together new belt kit and verified that no bent valves or kissed pistons- 1 in 100 percent chance that. any how the othere morning cold start at -10 fareinheit here in maine and coolant indicator and oil light come on on failed start- oil reads hardly on the dip, i add a quart and its over topping the proper reading on the dip today? add to that the coolant is low and its GREEN? as i know g12 coolant is orange. what do ya think? i figure have em replace the coolant with the right stuff at the garage as they charged me 50 bucks for it anyway. how bad is it to have put 5000 miles on that stuff?
and whats up with that weird oil reading? can exceptionally cold weather cause a false reading like that?
thanks for bearing with me. have a nice day.

oil level is checked warm after 3 min or more drain down time. coolant should be red

Hello, Mr. Alpaca. And welcome to Fred's. Your tale below could be a case study in everything that could go wrong!

The green coolant really isn't an immediate problem. The problem starts when the proper coolant is mixed with the generic green stuff. Is it your intention to keep this car running much longer

insidiousalpaca said:

hey there- purchased a tdi golf 2000 gls from florida this past july due to selling my toyota tacoma back to them for the rust out buy back plan- 12000 bucks later i figured that the cost of fuel being what it was to buy the diesel. awesome torque car, purchased a 190,000 mile rebuilt engine- new valves pistons rings turbo, in great garaged florida shape. 6 weeks later timing belt slips due to properly installed yet faulty timing belt tensioner, 1900 bucks later its all back together new belt kit and verified that no bent valves or kissed pistons- 1 in 100 percent chance that. any how the othere morning cold start at -10 fareinheit here in maine and coolant indicator and oil light come on on failed start- oil reads hardly on the dip, i add a quart and its over topping the proper reading on the dip today? add to that the coolant is low and its GREEN? as i know g12 coolant is orange. what do ya think? i figure have em replace the coolant with the right stuff at the garage as they charged me 50 bucks for it anyway. how bad is it to have put 5000 miles on that stuff?
and whats up with that weird oil reading? can exceptionally cold weather cause a false reading like that?
thanks for bearing with me. have a nice day.

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Either check your oil before you start it or after the oil has a chance to drain back down. Hope you had your repair done by Herm.

i had been referred to herm and corresponded emails with him. i intend to keep the car as long as you can keep a diesel. ill have the coolant changed to the proper stuff this week on my mechanics dollar.

My question would be what happens when the two types of coolant are mixed?

insidiousalpaca said:

My question would be what happens when the two types of coolant are mixed?

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Really bad chem reaction....you don't want to go there.

OK, looks like the garage that did the work was not familiar with TDIs afterall. The G12, OAT based coolants are orange, purple-orange, or red (depends on how you see it I guess). Some seemed to be pink. At least you won't mistake it for green. To change it out make sure the system is well flushed such that all the green stuff is out before any OAT coolant is added.

You are in Maine. On a failed start, where the thing won't crank fast enough to run, one of the problems is that the oil is getting very viscous (thick won't flow well). Probably what happened is the oil pump did its job, but the oil didn't get back to the sump quickly enough to show on the dip stick when you checked it. An overfill of this degree isn't a killer, yet, but I wouldn't make a habit of it and would get rid of the excess if you can find a way to do so. The excess will not help anything, and might make it harder to start.

The coolant light you are seeing is the high temperature light in the upper left of that info block, right? Extreme cold is doing that. Just check that your coolant is still in the recovery reservoir like it is supposed to and the light will shut off after a few minutes after the engine warms up enough that the sensor no longer thinks it is dying. I guess it doesn't like extreme cold any more than the rest of us do.

Powder Hound said:

OK, looks like the garage that did the work was not familiar with TDIs afterall. The G12, OAT based coolants are orange, purple-orange, or red (depends on how you see it I guess). Some seemed to be pink. At least you won't mistake it for green. To change it out make sure the system is well flushed such that all the green stuff is out before any OAT coolant is added.

You are in Maine. On a failed start, where the thing won't crank fast enough to run, one of the problems is that the oil is getting very viscous (thick won't flow well). Probably what happened is the oil pump did its job, but the oil didn't get back to the sump quickly enough to show on the dip stick when you checked it. An overfill of this degree isn't a killer, yet, but I wouldn't make a habit of it and would get rid of the excess if you can find a way to do so. The excess will not help anything, and might make it harder to start.

The coolant light you are seeing is the high temperature light in the upper left of that info block, right? Extreme cold is doing that. Just check that your coolant is still in the recovery reservoir like it is supposed to and the light will shut off after a few minutes after the engine warms up enough that the sensor no longer thinks it is dying. I guess it doesn't like extreme cold any more than the rest of us do.

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What viscocity was in there?

Great explanation im sure thats what happened wirh the oil reading. Now I'll have the coolant flushed and replaced. Ima keep this ride to 500k!

dieseldorf said:

Really bad chem reaction....you don't want to go there.

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If the wrong coolant was added could that have led to a failure of the system which is responsible for a very low coolant level now?