Diesel is awesome?

[Michael]

I have two coolent gauges in my car. One is the tempreture gauge and the other is a warning light that comes on and flashes when the coolent is low. A fair amount of steam came out from under the hood, and a few minutes later the warning light came on flashing. I took my bottle of water and refilled the reservoir. About 5 minutes went by and the warning light came on again. I had a look and the reservoir was empty. The tempreture gauge didn't budge an inch though. I took it to a gas station and refilled it and again in about 5 minutes the warning indicator was flashing. I had it serviced this morning and a rad hose that runs to the heater block had cracked so it was replaced. Here's the weird thing, I ran the car for at least 5 hours straight and the tempreture gauge didn't budge an inch and the car ran as it always does. And it was a warm night. Because a diesel has about 14 times the compression ratio as a normal car does the higher tempreture not effect it that much? Like I said the tempreture gauge stayed in the middle and the car ran smooth. Is the coolent really only needed for hot weather?

[jim_mich]

Michael, are you saying that you ran the car for five hours with the low coolant light flashing without the coolant overheating?

It is probable that the car lost enough coolant to cause the low coolant light to come on while there was still enough coolant to keep the engine cool enough. Even though the coolant looks empty there is still a lot of coolant in the engine block and in the lower part of the radiator. As long as this remaining coolant can circulate it can keep the engine at its normal operating temperature during mild weather.

[Bill_Mothershead]

Some things in/around your engine may not do so well super-heated.

Lubricants.

Gaskets.

Hoses.

[Michael]

Hi Jim, yep that's what I am saying. What you are suggesting is plausible, in fact the mechanic suggested that as a maybe, he wasn't sure though he was still confused, and also considered what I suggested about diesels as a possible maybe. The hose that had the crack is down low and when I squeezed one of the upper hoses it squeezed quite easily as if there wasn't any water or pressure in it and it was cold to the touch.

[docfeelsgood]

Michael ;
i'd say you got very fortunate so far on that one . on the rabbit diesels overheating the head usually warped the head and took out the gasket . then you would have to plane the head . a slipping belt would also cause this . also make sure you have a good timing belt on them . if it breaks or slips a tooth the pistons slam the valves .

[getterdone]

Hi Micheal,, if you plan on keeping your Jetta for a long time , then you'll realy see the benefits of a deisel. I've also got a 2006 Jetta ,and I love it. I got a Dodge truck that 's got a Cummings deisel it's got over 400,000 kms and a lot of that was off-road. I just made a load from Alberta to New Brunswick (5200kms) and I didn't need to add a drop of oil the whole trip. Another good thing about deisels is that I could change the computer setting in the truck to add 80 hp ,making for a lot nicer drive. Gotta go back and get another load so that will be another 10400 kms , we'll see if it takes any oil on that one.

[Michael]

I have 240,000 kilometers on it so far.