air pockets in cooling system

faucho

Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2003
Location
austin, tx, us
TDI
golf, 2000, silver
air pockets in cooling system

a4 golf manual (2000).

the other day, i attempted to clean my intake manifold using the instructions on gewilli's site. i had to give up and reassemble due to the late hour and lack of a 6mm ball allen wrench (sigh).

by the time i gave up, i had already unhooked the exhaust cooler, and lost some coolant.

i'm concerned that i may have air in my cooling system, when i squeeze the hoses, i get a squishy sound. unfortunately, i didn't squeeze the hoses before i lost coolant, so i don't know if they are supposed to sound like that.

i have already run the car up to operating temperature (190f), with the heater on, and with it off, and with the cap on and off the coolant reservoir.

i've done a search and found some advice, but nothing has eliminated the squishy.


questions:

1. if i hear a squishy bubbly sound when i squeeze hoses, does that indicate air in my cooling system?

2. how do i bleed the cooling system?


regarding #1, i asked the woman who works downstairs if i could squeeze her hoses (she didn't slap me) 2.0 new beetle. there was no squishy noise.

i'll get a ball-end 6mm and try the intake clean later, but for now, i'm afraid i'll cook my car if i drive it.

thanks for your help.
 

faucho

Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2003
Location
austin, tx, us
TDI
golf, 2000, silver
replying to my own post here so that people can use it as a reference.

my hoses still make the squishy sound, but my car survived the (hot) summer. so squishy sound does not necessarily mean anything bad.

an informal survey of several other modern cars, showed that about half of them make the sound, and half don't.

oh, the second attempt at intake cleaning worked fine, the instructions on gewilli's site are very good. but you can get to it without disconnecting the coolant hose, just be careful not to bend anything.
 

MITBeta

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Location
Boston's Metro South-West
TDI
2001 Jetta TDI, 2004 Sprinter CDI Passenger (Mid/High), former: 1996 Passat TDI Variant
Any air in the cooling system should get purged back to the overflow reservoir where you'll see a lowering of the coolant level. Opening the cap and adding more coolant will purge the system.
 
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