Changing a radiator

Forgot to ask should I go for a gsf or eurocar part rad for about £50 or £100 for a genuine part ?

Yes although the bumper part could be a bt challenging.

Makes little difference.

Just check the qality of the GSF/Euro part. They may offer alternatives, in which case I'd buy the OEM version, which will probably be the same item as the genuine one, but for less. Provided you don't get the cheapest one they offer, GSF/Euro parts are usually very good quality.

Sounds about right. Might be a bit of bleeding, of your knuckles and then the cooling system to do in there.

Your feet will probably get wet at some point too. (c:

I'd buy the genuine part, if its £100 from eurocarparts/gsf. Having mucked about on a 1999 Passat, genuine stuff on VAGs IME is very good quality.

I've had a bad experience with piss-poor quality pattern parts where I had to change a heater matrix twice in the space of a few months.

Strangley ennough i have just got almost exactly the same problem in the same place with my car.

Combo Van 1.6 Petrol/LPG.

For me and for the OP can anyone give a guidline of the approx capacity of our respective cooling systems and in my case is blue coolant the best? It has blue at the moment but that doesnt mean it is what is supposed to be in it!

Can anyone advise me of the bleed points if any for the engine and any other gotchas?

Many Thanks

Weird coincidence. On my golf there is a bleed tap on the passenger side to drain the coolant into a bowl. Failing that just pop the bottom radiator hose off and stick a bowl under to collect it for disposal, my local garage take stuff like this for free.

My coolant is pink in colour and is called g12 coolant available form vw themselves or eurocar parts, GSF or from what I read halfords spec coolant meets the g12 standard. Its about £6 I think for a bottle and I needed about

...a tip is to drain the coolant when cold hehe

Just a note about VW's coolants.

Beware of mixing G11 (blue) with G12 (pink). They'll react together and block the cooling passages. A complete flush is required for the changeover.

G11 is a hybrid silicate coolant, whereas G12 is OAT.

The good news is that they've both been superseded by G12+ (on the purple side of pink, and also OAT). G12+ mixes happily with either G11 or G12.

John

Thanks for that info John very interesting I did not know there is a was a new g12 + out and that it can work with g11 and g12.

You learn something new everyday :)

...had an afternoon of doing his cv gaiters ... First time doing the cv gaiters, seriously messy job hehe wish I took it to the garage :) ... but satisfying having it done.