silica grain in the header tank

[SuperV8]

£60 from autodoc in Germany took nearly a week but I think it’s going to be worth it, that was for both matrix and bottle

These are aftermarket parts (copies of the originals), i'm sure the heater matrix will be fine but personally I would have doubts about using an aftermarket tank with silicate repository - when the original part which they copy can't even do with silicate reliably?

 

[BigJase88]

Thats what SEAT fitted to mine, yeah i know coolant is on the low side.

no other details so cannot tell you what revision it is.

 

[RUM4MO]

Thats what SEAT fitted to mine, yeah i know coolant is on the low side.

no other details so cannot tell you what revision it is.

Are you saying that a SEAT dealership fitted that tank to your car? Under the terms of operation no VW Group labelled up dealership will be authorised to fit aftermarket replacement parts where VW Group are still able to provide genuine ones.

 

[BigJase88]

Are you saying that a SEAT dealership fitted that tank to your car? Under the terms of operation no VW Group labelled up dealership will be authorised to fit aftermarket replacement parts where VW Group are still able to provide genuine ones.

I traded in my SEAT Leon for an Approved used AUDI they had on the forecourt.

it was the AUDI that i have had all the issues with regarding burst silica bag and blocked matrix.

yeah so SEAT dealership fitted that tank to my AUDI, i would also hazard a guess that the heater matrix and air con rad they put oh it will also be ALDI parts not AUDI

 

[RUM4MO]

Taking that action on a repair beggars belief as they should have used TPS to source that Audi used part, which as you know would have been the same item as SEAT would source, but maybe from an other vendor/manufacturer.

The only source of a proper "Approved Audi" is from an Audi dealership, same for "Approved VW" and "Approved SEAT" so what silly game were or are they playing?

 

[BigJase88]

Taking that action on a repair beggars belief as they should have used TPS to source that Audi used part, which as you know would have been the same item as SEAT would source, but maybe from an other vendor/manufacturer.

The only source of a proper "Approved Audi" is from an Audi dealership, same for "Approved VW" and "Approved SEAT" so what silly game were or are they playing?

Sorry it probably wasn’t approved audi, the car does have complete Audi service history though.

VAG doesn’t make the tanks they probably get them from Mahle anyways and re-stamp them

 

[RUM4MO]

Sometimes you find companies boasting/claiming that they are OEM suppliers to the factory, when they are just trying to sell something else, ie not any of the item types they do or did in the past.

Mahle I think tends to supply other bits, a bit strange that a genuine SEAT place would buy in anything other than genuine parts for fitting to cars that they have sold, that is all.

 

[DaveMac]

I had the bag in my tank and has been in for four years but when I took it to garage to have it looked over the first thing he said was “and that can come out of there” and he explained saying he saw a cupra 290 other year come in and the bag had split, it was a very expensive fix etc, this coolant for life is rubbish he said, and with a performance car who would not want to replace there coolant etc after let’s say five years. Plus it now gives me piece of mind not thinking has or will the bag burst/split

 

[BigJase88]

I had the bag in my tank and has been in for four years but when I took it to garage to have it looked over the first thing he said was “and that can come out of there” and he explained saying he saw a cupra 290 other year come in and the bag had split, it was a very expensive fix etc, this coolant for life is rubbish he said, and with a performance car who would not want to replace there coolant etc after let’s say five years. Plus it now gives me piece of mind not thinking has or will the bag burst/split

Coolant change coincides with timing belt change anyhoo so nothing to worry about. New belt and coolant every 4 years. Hey presto no problems

 

[RUM4MO]

Coolant change coincides with timing belt change anyhoo so nothing to worry about. New belt and coolant every 4 years. Hey presto no problems

Well in the "dark good old days(?)" yes, an opportunity to get the coolant replaced as it had been dropped out to do that work, now with chains and even newer engines that have cam belts, the coolant system does not get opened up when replacing the cam "drive element", so you need to make a deliberate effort to replace it. It sounds like, G12evo can give proper corrosion protection for many many years, something that G13 could not do without having silcate salts bleed into it to retain/regain the ability to remain slightly alkaline. I have been checking the G13 in my wife's August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS and it's ph is heading towards being acidic a lot faster than the factory fitted G12+/G12++ did in my 2011 Audi S4 - I changed that G12+/G12++ for G12evo last year and so far, it's ph has remained very close to where it started.

I've written a round up of what I did to my daughter's 2019 Cupra 290 last month - and that included my suggestion that she bought a new reservoir that has not got any silicate pouches in it in a bid to prevent a lot of extra money being pumped into that car in the near future, her "car interested" partner will have read that as well as she will have done, but I'd suspect as there is no immediate "bad things" starting to happen, nothing will get done, maybe I'll press this issue harder soon!

Edit:- also the "4 years for belts" has gone many years ago, it moved quickly to "5 years for belts" and seems to have stuck with that, VW Group on the other hand claim the belts in their newer engines only need replacing when showing signs of wear, they should be getting inspected an a regular basis after maybe 6 years.

 

[RUM4MO]

I had the bag in my tank and has been in for four years but when I took it to garage to have it looked over the first thing he said was “and that can come out of there” and he explained saying he saw a cupra 290 other year come in and the bag had split, it was a very expensive fix etc, this coolant for life is rubbish he said, and with a performance car who would not want to replace there coolant etc after let’s say five years. Plus it now gives me piece of mind not thinking has or will the bag burst/split

My suggestion would be, if that silicate pouch or pouches have been removed, you should change the coolant to G12evo which is the current VW Group spec for engine coolant, maybe get that done within the next 2 years to avoid the G13 from becoming acidic. Sometimes, it seems, you can not trust which coolant was loaded into that car at initial assembly by reading what is printed on the reservoir label, I suspect that they kept on using up the "stocked for factory use" G13 versions possibly complete with the silicate pouch/pouches after the change date in factory for starting to use only G12evo, typical VW Group way of doing things, which is strange for a German based company - though these cars are being built out with Germany so maybe that is the reason for just doing what makes life easier!

 

[tmdwsn]

Hi guys, I know I’m a bit late to this thread but I’ve picked up a 2018 1.4 recently and I’m trying to figure out whether I need to do anything about this silica problem.

I can’t see a bag in the tank, it has no ‘mit silikat’ label and I’m almost certain my part number ends in F…

Does anyone know what the deal is with this tank? If there’s no silica like in the part ending M, how does it still use G13?

Any help is much appreciated!

 

[RUM4MO]

Well, one reasonable reason can be that VW Group have considered that this engine does not cause any situations to exist where the coolant gets stressed enough to degrade "quickly".
My wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT left the factory loaded with G13 but doesn't have a silicate pouch.
I'd expect all DERV engined cars and higher powered Petrol engined cars of this age to have silicate pouches in their coolant tanks.
This was just another mess up by VW Group as the ph value of the G13 coolant in my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT headed towards being acidic quite quickly when compared with the G13 in our older daughter's 2019 SEAT Leon Cupra which has G13 and a silcate pouch to keep the ph value "okay".
So, if you want to "play safe" get that G13 out of your car and refill it with G12evo - or add a silicone pouch equipped coolant reservoir - frankly I'd go for changing to G12evo based on what I've discovered when/while checking ph values.