Urgent! Charge cooler leak!

[ninja.turtle007]

The charge cooler has been losing coolant and I thought it would just be a small leak from a hose somewhere. I have just discovered coolant in the intake pipe.

Is there any where London or Surrey base that can repair this ASAP or would something like rad weld work as temporary fix?

I need to have this solved by Tuesday due to holiday.

[lloydy]

Long life exhausts in carshalton do ally and s/steel welding, can you see the hole for them to fix it?

[ninja.turtle007]

I can't see the leak. I presume it is the core inside the intercooler that is leaking.

[lloydy]

times not on your side is it, have you thought about removing it for your hols and just joining the pipes together?

[ninja.turtle007]

times not on your side is it, have you thought about removing it for your hols and just joining the pipes together?

I could drain it. Would I risk damaging the engine with high intake temps?

[lloydy]

cant see how, Kieth (and quite a few others) ran his for a fair while with no chargecooler. Would think you would notice slight power drop and maybe a CEL if the inlet gets too hot. Maybe confirm that with someone like max and caddy/ syncroandy.

[keith]

I ran mine without when in the process of fitting......not for long mind....and not at full boost for long.....i do think its a safer bet than radweld...dont want that getting into the inlet.

[syncroandy]

I think it'll just soldier on without the i/c, then if inlet temps go over 60 or something it'll start to back off fuelling a bit. I wouldn't worry too much about it so long as ambient temps are moderate.

[ninja.turtle007]

With hindsight it may have been leaking since I bought it. I never really checked the levels until I could see the really high intake temps after I had fitted a scan gauge. So I think it been running with and without enough to circulate coolant for a while.

Thanks for the help, I'm going to run it as is and hope I have no major issues. Break down cover in place.

I found a company locally that can either repair it or build a custom one once I'm back as it can take 2-3 weeks.

[max and caddy]

What was the highest intake you saw out of intrest? And what's everyone else peaking at? My missuss s mk4 AGR runs about 45degs on a hot day on a long climb at about 70 mph...that's standard tdi..

[ninja.turtle007]

What was the highest intake you saw out of intrest? And what's everyone else peaking at? My missuss s mk4 AGR runs about 45degs on a hot day on a long climb at about 70 mph...that's standard tdi..

On a hot day just over 50c, with low coolant up to 90c.

[lloydy]

Ive had it touch 60 on sustained max boost going up a long steep climb(talking 50mph, 4th gear, full throttle for around 5 mins). Normal motorway driving inc up down hills its around 35 to low 50's

[mazz]

We see avg temps of 60 to 70c on modern cars when driven hard Tom. We had a customer bring in a Golf 4 not so long ago and someone had removed intercooler and replaced it with drain pipe, it had been like that for years apparantly.
Have a good holiday Tom

[andy1300gt]

Its about time we got to see some temps from somewhere. Now I know mine are in the correct range. Max 52C flat out up hill in fourth an the M5 towards Exeter racecourse

[max and caddy]

So what's the maximum safe temp and does the ecu start backing of fuel delivery if a danger level is reached...or will the engine just melt instead...