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My T5 is over 5 years old, so well out of warranty, but for a while now has occasionally thrown a low coolant warning.
It's fairly "In your face" and tells you to stop ASAP, but I don't because I usually can't safely and it goes away quickly.
In fact it usually appears when the car is cold and almost immediately drives onto a steepish downhill section. It then goes off again after a minute or two.
The first couple of times it happened I had nowhere to stop anyway and it went away before I could pull over.
In all cases the level was around minimum on the header tank, so I topped it up and this generally lasted some weeks/months.
There's no sign of any drips or overflow, though I haven't done a close inspection underneath. And the system is definitely holding pressure fine.
A retired garage proprietor friend of mine had a quick look today and was of the opinion that it was "probably" a slow leak from the water pump when it was being driven.
His advice was: Don't panic, don't waste any time/expense on further investigations unless it gets a lot worse, monitor and top up as necessary and replace the water pump when the timing belt is done, though this should happen anyway.
He guessed the timing belt would be due at 7 years age, which is about 18 months away. Annual mileage isn't high so that wouldn't trigger it.
So my questions are:
1. Does this analysis sound plausible?
2. When is the timing belt due for replacement?
3. Would it be standard to also replace other belts, water pump and related items such as thermostat, guides/tensioners etc.
It's fairly "In your face" and tells you to stop ASAP, but I don't because I usually can't safely and it goes away quickly.
In fact it usually appears when the car is cold and almost immediately drives onto a steepish downhill section. It then goes off again after a minute or two.
The first couple of times it happened I had nowhere to stop anyway and it went away before I could pull over.
In all cases the level was around minimum on the header tank, so I topped it up and this generally lasted some weeks/months.
There's no sign of any drips or overflow, though I haven't done a close inspection underneath. And the system is definitely holding pressure fine.
A retired garage proprietor friend of mine had a quick look today and was of the opinion that it was "probably" a slow leak from the water pump when it was being driven.
His advice was: Don't panic, don't waste any time/expense on further investigations unless it gets a lot worse, monitor and top up as necessary and replace the water pump when the timing belt is done, though this should happen anyway.
He guessed the timing belt would be due at 7 years age, which is about 18 months away. Annual mileage isn't high so that wouldn't trigger it.
So my questions are:
1. Does this analysis sound plausible?
2. When is the timing belt due for replacement?
3. Would it be standard to also replace other belts, water pump and related items such as thermostat, guides/tensioners etc.