Be Excellent To Each Other

I think I'll leave it as it is, and spend the money on luxury boxed wines instead.

It goes fast enough anyway, and it's not like I haven't just had a really fast car, so it seems silly to spend £400 making my new car go not as fast as the one I've just had.

My goal to master Android Auto to make my car like the Starship Enterprise, and I its Captain Kirk.

CAR, ENGAGE.

Kirk rarely says "engage".

Oh yeah I meant Picard. Who is of course the best Captain of the Enterprise.

Crikey, Facebook's algorithms are on the ball.

That's just basic remarketing.

You go to a webpage, that webpage has Facebook "like" buttons on, or something, Facebook can see that you've been to that website and know what that website is about, hence you start seeing adverts about it.

Although I suspect this is more similar to Amazon's "you've bought X, would you like y and z to go with it." Only in hearthly's case it's: "we see you just purchased a car. Would you be interested in purchasing a car to go with it?"

Really liking the Seat, it's obviously a 'cut-price' Audi/VW in some regards (i.e. comparing things from the Golf R estate to this car, but then again the Seat is a nearly-new car for £19K and the VW was a two year old car at £23K), for example lower quality interior materials in some areas and suchlike, but beyond that it's effectively the same car. (Well apart from the engine of course, but moving from a 300bhp car to another 300bhp car seemed rather silly hence the power downgrade.)

Star of the show for me is definitely Android Auto which is totally fab so hopefully Google aren't going to 'Do a Windows Phone' on it and kill it off. It's properly integrated into the car so the only two physical buttons next to the screen are for 'Phone OS' and 'Car OS', it switches between the two seamlessly and if I move back to the car OS from Android Auto to dick about with a car setting of some sort, Android Auto still carries on playing Spotify, for example. (They basically multi-task independently of each other and you can switch between the 'Windows' to give it a familiar descriptor.) I assume there's a standard that 'Android Auto' branded cars have to meet, so they use the mic in the car, pipe the audio output to the speakers, and so on.

It's looking like it'll settle down to 50MPG+, it's a comfortable and pleasant car to drive, has a reasonable turn of speed for overtaking when required (lest we forget the previous Civic Type-R had 200bhp, this car has 184bhp, and far more torque), and is generally a nice place to be.

The folks at work are already placing bets on how long it'll last, measured in months, no one's going for years.

So here's a thing, the coolant expansion tank doesn't have a cap on it. I popped the bonnet for the first time today and immediately saw that where it should have a sealed screw-in cap, there is nothing at all.

Two questions:

1) How come the coolant hasn't overflowed and pissed out all over the engine bay? I thought coolant systems were pressurised, and it obviously can't be a pressurised system in its current state.

2) The car appears to be running fine, isn't overheating etc, how is that the case? Will the coolant even be circulating properly when it's like this?

I popped the bonnet at the end of a drive with the engine running, so the engine was up to running temperature, and it wasn't bubbling up or anything.

I've rung the dealer who was quite bewildered by it and says if I swing by tomorrow he'll replace the cap.

The picture was taken after I'd stopped the engine, but it looked just the same when the engine was running.

New car time! This one is sullied already.

According to INTERNET RESEARCH I can't get a clear answer to this.

Some folks are saying that the expansion tank isn't pressurised and it's the radiator side of things that operates under pressure, that the expansion tank is more of an overflow and under normal conditions the cap is just there to keep debris out more than anything else. I've seen several comments along the line of 'Don't worry about it, just use something as a makeshift cap, replace it with a proper one when you can, but carry on driving normally for now and don't stress'.

Others are saying ZOMG STOP NOW ALL THE COOLANT WILL ESCAPE AND YOUR CAR WILL EXPLODE.

I assume the cap has been missing for a while, and the coolant level is still comfortably between the MIN/MAX markers, and there's no visible sign of coolant having escaped, plus when I had the bonnet open before with the engine running it wasn't bubbling up or anything - so I'm leaning towards the first school of thought.

Still a bit narked though, the dealer said they check all the fluid levels in cars before handing them over to a customer and I was just like, 'Well either the levels in this car didn't get checked, or they were checked by someone who doesn't understand that expansion tanks should have caps on them'.

Sell the car... it has been a week

Or they were checked by someone who then either left the cap off entirely or didn't refit it properly and it came off.

you could talk to the dealer.. I know it is a wild thought.

You don't need to take the cap off to check the level, you can see it very clearly through the translucent sides of the tank. It's possible they added some coolant and then forgot to put the cap back on. (Which would be bad as the only real way a coolant system can lose coolant is if there's a leak in it, so I really wouldn't expecting them to have to add any.)

Also, if you look at the picture you can see that the screw for the cap goes down a good couple of centimetres, there's no way that's just 'coming off' by itself.



I already have done, as indicated in my previous two posts.

Just sounds like the have topped it up, and forgot to put the cap on. Nothing wrong with that.

Yes there is, modern cars shouldn't lose coolant, especially a four month old car that's done 2500 miles. If it needed topping up, then the cooling system has a leak in it. (I've looked in the manual for my car, and it actually says something like 'If you need to top up your coolant then there is almost certainly a leak in the system, take the car to an approved Seat dealer for them to check the system'.)

Anyway, after more INTERNETTING I have found a decent article that says this:



http://www.aa1car.com/library/coolant_r ... ystems.htm

The car is clearly faulty. You need to take it back and get a new one.

Now, did anyone have 'days' on the sweepstake?

SEAT must have never fitted it then, only obvious answer. If the dealer did not pop the cap off to top it up....

I am trying to keep a straight face...

They were probably checking the anti freeze concentration, not topping it up and forgot to put the cap on.

I know, hardly any drahmha with that answer.

Have you checked if the sump plug is loose? Maybe you should. It might be loose. Could just be hanging on, waiting to drop out at 80mph and cause catastrophic engine failure. Not saying it is loose, just that it might be loose. They forgot the coolant cap, maybe they forgot the sump plug. Go and check it now, just to be safe.

Giphy "you got me":
https://media2.giphy.com/media/P4lbkAoPpW2iY/giphy-loop.mp4

EDIT - Not exactly what I was after, giphy.

You Sir, are evil.

Do they have a newer car available?

It's sump plug might also be loose.

There's nowhere to hide, you'll just have to get an ev.

When our Ford Firsta overheated it was because the pope for the coolant tank popped off. We bought more coolant and he topped up the tank and then ran the engine with the heating on inside full blast and revving was engine loads to make it boil up.

He left the cap off the whole time and it was boiling away merrily and bubbling but none ever spilled out.

So I guess you’re ok as long as you don’t bounce around or drive at a 45 degree angle or something.

I'd get that Catholic Converter seen to.

Giphy "bravo":
https://media2.giphy.com/media/xTiTnmsLNtyyfalqVO/giphy-loop.mp4

Edit: fuuuuuuck you, giphy!

We could tell there was something happening due to the colour of the smoke that started appearing, in pontiff fact.

And when you do, see if they'll give you a better price if you pay with Papal.

Cap get! The guy had a Seat Ibiza on the forecourt, it uses the same cap. I now have the Ibiza's cap.

If any of you are buying a Seat Ibiza on the IOM in the near future. Check the coolant expansion tank cap is present.

Well done on the Catholic Converter/Papal thing, BTW.

Hmmm. You know what I think? I think this car is losing coolant. Not much, but it's losing it.

See 'COOLIO1' and 'COOLIO2' below. Admittedly there's a slight difference in the angle but even accounting for that, I think the level is lower in COOLIO2. (And there's only about 50 miles between these two pictures.)

I wonder if this starts to solve the mystery of THE MISSING COOLANT EXPANSION TANK CAP, and also why a four month old vehicle with 2500 miles on it with only one private owner had found its way to British Car Auctions.

I will be checking this daily, and if my suspicions are confirmed, at least it'll get fixed under warranty. (Unless there's some horrible exemption in there for something like this.)

Stupid German cars. Just like Mercedes.

Fun fact! Seat's coolant system is named the Cooltronic.

Same in German, apparently.

(If you look round the back of the tank it's got a little 'MADE BY VW/AUDI GROUP' embossment on it. Or MADE BY VAG, or something like that. And I know embossment isn't a word.)

If you check it daily you won't see it being used - mark it with a pen (when the car is level) and check it every week. Also make sure the car is the same temperature (ie. stone cold) when you check it.

I think it's time you sold it. You've had nothing but problems with it since you bought it.

That's the thing, I think it's visibly dropped in about 50 miles, albeit only slightly. Both those pics were taken with the car completely cold.

I hope I'm wrong as it's almost in the realms of 'visual margin of error' given slightly different camera angles, but the car was parked in the same place for both shots, which is on a slight angle (but also consistent between the two pics).

If you look at the 'start point' on the left hand side where the coolant and the crosses on the tank intersect, it definitely looks lower in COOLIO2 to me.

I have been thinking to myself 'Why the fuck was the cap off the coolant tank in a four month old car with 2500 miles on it?'.

Also, I topped the coolant off once I put the replacement cap on the tank, the level was lower than that at that point.

You can't tell unless it's on a flat surface. Sure, it's leaning to the side, but what if it's also leaning to the front?

Both pictures were taken with the car parked in exactly the same spot at the back of our house, the only difference is the camera angle (which isn't much of a difference).

So whatever the leanings of the car in any particular direction might be (pro-Brexit, anti-abortion, ambivalent on drug law reform, etc), it's a consistent reporting position, a bit like a set of scales that you know underweighs by a half a pound.

I'll check it daily from now on, if it should become obvious that the coolant level is dropping, even if only slowly, it's getting taken back to get fixed.

Mines a mk1 so nothing like yours but it pissed out coolant when the temp sensor was replaced incorrectly by a twonk mechanic. Know what work it's had done lately?

Or just leave it as you'll be buying something else in January.

Sump plug ok?

Today's sexy coolant expansion tank pic.

Wow, that's dropping like a stone.

That *does* look lower.

That was taken when I walked back to my car down on the prom after work, it'd been parked there since 7:15am, so the engine was completely cold.

Anyway, it's had a 20 mile drive since then, so I'll pop out later and take another look after it's fully cooled down again.

Hmmm, I've managed to find a different angle.

Early morning pic by torchlight.

It doesn't seem any lower than the last one but deffo seems lower than the early ones.

Tchoh. I guess it'll become obvious within a few days one way or the other.

Don't worry about it. If it keeps going down at this rate there will still be loads left by the time you sell it.

Have you ever had a car long enough that you had to top the fluids up, Hearthly? Including petrol.