How to clean header tank

When you drain it, remove it, fill it with detergent and hot water, shake it about to shift most of it, then rinse thoroughly. If you want to get fussy about it, buy a bottlebrush from Boots or similar.

Richard

What colour is the plastic?

They tend to be semi clear white when new, but go old andyellow and very Opaque with age.

on my old Estelle, I had to shine a torch from behind to accuratley check the level.

Well the cars only 2 years old, but the coolant is red

Here is an engine just like mine

Have you priced up a new one? IIRC the new one for my sister's Skoda was only £8, and it was a similar amount for the Sera's one.

Richard

Good point, I'll phone the local dealer, its one of those anal things that piss me off, I will make sure though that there isnt somthing wrong first :)

Would it just be rust and stuff from the radiator? my old audi needed hosing out last time, but i still couldnt see inside the header tank

Ah the standard VW red coolant. Missus's Fabia has the same stuff, but they used the white translucent plastic instead of elegant grey.

You sure it actually has red coolant in there?

I think it has, I will take a pic tonight, im buying some later from GSF its called G12 I think, and its a special VAG antifreeze, they dont recommend you use anything else

Are you sure it has any in it...?

Pop the cap, and stare into it, check its got coolant. If not, fill it up, quick ;)

I would be alittle concerned the coolant is manky and horrible if the car is only 2 yrs old- check that its not containing anything that shouldnt be there....like oil!

Remove the header tank and pop it in the parts-washer, sorry dish-washer. (when the Mrs is out obviously)

Tim..

Nah theres no mayo or nothing in there its just dirty, prob just general grime

Easiest and cheapest way is to take it off and put some bleach or other cleaning fluid in it, then for the secret ingredient.... a bit of sand. Shake it all up together and rinse, it should be like new.

Just put it in the dishwasher. Will come up a treat.

Will

Except that it's effectively a sealed system ! There shouldn't really be any grime in there after two years...

hmm I just noticed a brown line on the acc belt maybe i got a coolant leak? could be off the road I spose, I bought some G12 so will flush it out at the weekend and see how it goes, I havnt lost any water as far as I can see. On a side note I went to buy some wiper blades, what a nightmare that turned out to be, I told the guy in GSF its a B6 audi and I recken he thought I said V6 or sumit cus he gave me the wrong ones, so I took them back as it said S3 on the box and got some more, they turned out wrong as well, basiclly you have to get B6 wipers from the main dealer, so off I go to Bristol Audi, the wipers are actually fine, but the clip at the end of the wiper arm is broke causing the wiper to flap about. So I ask for a set of wipers and they say 33 quid inc VAT, jeez that expensive, but took them, then the women said "you sure its not the clip at the end broke" I said yeah thats the problem, so she comes back with a whole wiper arm assembly, a big huge thing, i'm like holy shit how much does that cost, 19.99 she tells me, so I bought that :) and its all ok now, well one of the engineers here in work is fitting it for me.

So a set of blades cost 29.99 + vat, but the whole arm assembly only costs

Ronny

More saga's continue when I drain the water :)

Quite, my 4 yr old Focus' header tank is crystal clean still (original red 4 yr life coolant)

Tim..

Ah, but how often do people replace wiper blades compared to the arm assembly ? (ie, where does the profit lay, if Audi were to, er, artificially inflate some prices ?)

:)