UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Okay major issue with wifes car, it has been loosing water now for the past few weeks. AA rescued us and said termastat so replaced still did it.. took it out totally still does it..

now i dont seem to have any water in the oil (not gone whiteish)
there is no water coming out of the exhaust when you rev highish
there does not seem to be any water leaking from any pipes
there is no water soaked into the carpet..

previous to this there used to be pressure build up within the water system
and it kept overheating when driving on motorways and stuff, i ran a radiator flush through and this has now stopped.. i dont have pressure in the system just loosing water.. probably about 1/2 a lt a week or so.. where the flippin eck is it going.. any suggestions as i am getting the "told you we need a new car" grief!!

anyone got any ideas???

not coming out of the radiator? Could be harder to spot than if it's leaking from a pipe.

Might be worth pouring a bit of rad-weld into the coolant?

will try some of that cheers, was a little bit worried that the head gasket might have gone.. if there is no water in the oil and no water coming out of the exhaust does that indicate that the head gasket might be okay??

Seems to indicate that... .but if water is going into the combustion chamber (and only tiny amounts each stroke, if it's only using 1/2 litre a week) it would probably vaporise anyway?

if the head gasket had gone you'd see smoke coming out of the block

How often is the car used? A good test would be to park it up for a while filled with coolant and let it sit, then look for obvious leaks, if the water stays up then its going into the engine somewhere, if it goes down then theres a leak.

Another way to tell is to run the car at idle, wait for heat to build up and check both the top and bottom radiator pipes to see of theyre hot, if not then either the water pumps shot and leaking or your gaskets about to go.