Empty Coolant

[leon cupra r]

OK so yesterday went shopping with the missus, pulled up in the carpark and noticed the bonnet appeared to be steaming a little more than it should from the rain evaporating... It also seemed to be coming from the gap between bonnet and wing, so popped her open to check, and realised the cap for the coolant tank was loose for some reason? (I'm pretty sure I didn't leave it like that!)

Anyway, when we got back from the round trip of pretty much every shop in Salisbury, I started her up and got the three beeps for coolant (level had obviously dropped when the coolant cooled down), but the only thing I had to top it up was water.

I just want to check that it's alright to run it with water in for the time being (the colour is not very pink anymore so must be pretty diluted)

and also, I've read on here about an auto-bleed system on the leons, does this work well? or are you still likely to get air locks??

As I have my system full of water at present, do you think I should flush this out and refill with coolant? and if so, is this an easy enough job to do?

 

[Applemobile]

Running with water is fine for short periods. But as soon as you can swap it for anti-freeze. Not just to protect you from low tempratures, but it also boils a lot higher temp, and is a rust inhibitant and lubricant!

 

[leon cupra r]

I was wondering that, if it boiled higher or not. Will see if I can get hold of some then. How do you empty the stuff thats in there already?

 

[Applemobile]

There should be a drain bung on the bottom of the radiator.

 

[Mylo]

there's a drain tap at the bottom of the radiator near the bottom hose, right hand side if you are stood in front of the car.

 

[leon cupra r]

Ah cheers lads, any ideas about the self bleeding? Is it literally a case of dropping all the coolant out and filling straight back up and leaving it to bleed itself?

 

[LEE69]

Squeeze the pipes with the coolant cap off whilst it is warming up to help it along.

 

[leon cupra r]

cool, cheers for that Lee, just had a check on it now and its looking a little bit more orange this morning now its had a chance to mix it all up with what was in the pipes already, it was only filling the header tank up with water... will probably still give it a flush out when I get round to it, not going to do any harm!