52 plate Passat leaking a small amount of clear fluid

Aug 05, 2007 7 Replies
S

Hi all, yep, I`m having bad luck with cars at the moment :-) My Passat has suddenly started leaking a clear liquid from the front nearside. In the course of 10 hours it`s dripped about half a tea spoon full, but obviously any fluid leak is bad. The leak is coming out underneath the windscreen washer fluid bottle, but could also easily be coming from a pipe to/from the radiator - it`s difficult to see.



It`s going in the garage in a few days to have a bearing on a pulley changed, so will be lifted up and have the under engine cover off to help locate this problem as well, but wondering - any suggestions? The fluid dries to leave a slightly tacky feeling, but feels a bit soapy when wet - no later when you rub it though. The coolant tank has lost a bit of water, but I can`t see if the washer fluid level has gone down, so it could be either from what I currently know.



Any suggestions?



Thanks for your help!



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C

Does it smell of anything? Typically coolant has a sweet smell to it. An oily texture would suggest brake fluid.

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S

Probably condensate from the air-con. Both my old Passat and the new one do it, as does the 156.

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A

I agree with SteveH, most likely condensation from the Air-con

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S

I wish it was this, but the car hasn`t moved in 2-3 days now so it can`t be this. :-)

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S

The problem is that there`s so little of it, trying to feel the texture/taste is difficult. I`m going to run the windscreen washers until I`m out of fluid, and see if that stops it appearing. After that it`s going to be getting difficult to diagnose without tasting the fluid, which seems a "Bad idea" (TM). :-)

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D

Buy some of that quality lemon odour windscreen washer concentrate halfords sell and see if it makes a more obvious smell.

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S

The stuff I`ve liberated in the past has a VERY strong distinctive apple smell. And if anything else in my car is smelling of apples, I` ve got more to worry about than a very slight leak :-)

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