Octavia 3 (diesel) coolant leak

[GrahamGKD]

I'd appreciate suggestions of what to do with this - it's leaking (only slightly now) from the bottom hose connection to the radiator. It's one of those attachments with a spring circlip type thing and there is a O ring inside the coupler on the hose end. The original O ring was flattened off on the inside, so I bought some Nitrile replacements - 40mm OD by 4mm cross section. The O ring swap certainly seems to have reduced the leak but not stopped it altogether - maybe the original O ring is non-standard but it's very close to the replacements I bought. I could replace the hose but there seem to be dozens of different types - even when I specify in my reg. If I could find some suitable generic hose (32mm or thereabouts) I could jubilee clip that to the rad and make an adapter to the original hose with a couple more jubilee clips. I would need to work in a 90 degree elbow somewhere.

Any ideas please folks?

.

 

[GrahamGKD]

I just phoned the local Skoda main dealer - I can get a genuine O ring for not a lot of money so I'll try that next. Hopefully that will work but I'll report back.

 

[qwakers]

A bodge but a good one is to smear the o-ring and hose barb liberally in rtv, dry the pipe, assemble it, clamp it and then leave it a day before filling the coolant

 

[GrahamGKD]

A bodge but a good one is to smear the o-ring and hose barb liberally in rtv, dry the pipe, assemble it, clamp it and then leave it a day before filling the coolant

Thanks for the suggestion - I will keep that one up my sleeve. It would be difficult to get is completely dry though. I picked up and fitted the genuine VAG O ring - it is very marginally bigger than the standard ones. I'm hoping that will do it.

 

[GrahamGKD]

OK - not so lucky as just the O ring (but still not as bad as a lot of other bits that leak). I took it to our local Halfords, who have always seemed pretty reasonable, and they pressure tested it and said the rad was leaking. I'm presuming the leaking coolant must have been getting onto the bottom hose somehow and dripping off there. The price was reasonable, so I asked them to go ahead and fix it. Some time later they phoned to say a second part of the rad is brittle and, ideally, I should replace that (more money). I pointed out that by the time they had increased their price they were not far off what the Skoda main dealer quoted for a rad replacement - they knocked 10% off. I don't have it back yet, but I have asked to see the old parts - I have to say I am slightly suspicious (are there two parts to a 2014 Octavia diesel rad?). The repair comes with a 2 yr warranty, so I guess that's not too bad - I have saved way more than what it will cost by servicing and repairing it (discs / pads, etc. – nothing major or unexpected) it myself since the warranty ran out - I have spent virtually nothing on it and it's done quite a bit over 100k miles.