Coolant level dropping...

[Maelstrom]

Hi Hive Mind.

We've got a 2018 Beach currently on almost 70m miles. It's always driven well and mostly behaved, always serviced and still got the extended warranty.

Had a big service in January, but the coolant warning light came on 21st May (69,132 miles). Got to admit, the coolant's never been an issue. Never had a warning light and never had to top up. I asked at the dealer when I went to pick up a bottle of coolant if it was normally checked with a service and they said no. The level was about an inch below the minimum so I topped it up with half a litre and presumed that was that, as I wouldn't know when it was last filled. Light came on again 20th June, topped up again, crossed my fingers. Just had a look today (69,687 miles) and I don't have a light yet, but it's about an inch below the minimum again.

Should I book it in, or buy another litre? I'm not seeing any other symptoms. Maybe the cooling fan is more obvious at the end of shorter journeys than it used to be.

It's done about 50k in the last 4 years. Long and regular short journeys. This seems to have coincided with me not using it for the shorter journeys as we've just got a new car.

 

[Jon A]

Same symptom for me when my EGR cooler was failing. There are several ways they can fail - one way is the thin metal barriers inside the cooler matrix breaks down and your coolant ends up mixed with the exhaust gas and then enters the cylinder where it gets burnt and ejected.

Might be something else , but you're at about the right mileage for EGR failure , which I regard as a consumable. Mine is a 2019 and EGR failed at 45k

 

[Maelstrom]

I did have the split EGR pipe a year ago. I'll book it in

 

[Resfeber]

Same symptom for me when my EGR cooler was failing. There are several ways they can fail - one way is the thin metal barriers inside the cooler matrix breaks down and your coolant ends up mixed with the exhaust gas and then enters the cylinder where it gets burnt and ejected.

Might be something else , but you're at about the right mileage for EGR failure , which I regard as a consumable. Mine is a 2019 and EGR failed at 45k

And for me at 62,000 (previous T6 Ocean 150bhp dsg. Never had to top up and then coolant light with an empty reservoir.
Had to keep topping up for a month until I could get to dealers for all in warranty repair.
Consumed about 100ml per 100 miles until repair with new EGR cooler