A4 Phil

I got the less than optimal low coolant warning in the middle of a DC to CO road trip. Of course, knowing how the e-tron behaves with coolant abnormalities I was worried. However, Audi of Denver I Littleton set my mind at ease and told me to bring the car in when I got to Colorado. They set me up with a Saturday morning appointment. The tech told me that too little coolant was better than too much.

Anyway, I dropped it off this am. The Saturday Tech told me that in fact the rear overflow canister was full and the float indicator was not floating. He replaced the coolant cartridge and the overflow canister and ran all of the rear motor isolation tests. It passed.

He then said that there is no overflow canister for the front motor. Just an overflow plug. He replaced the plug and put a new coolant cartridge for the front and ran it's isolation tests. He said it passed. He was concerned about the front because apparently it is not supposed to drip at all and it had evidence of a slight drip.

His recommendation was to request a coolant level check once I get home in a couple of weeks.

He then knocked out my 40k service and gave me the car back in four hours. I have to say that they were very impressive. Same day service is unheard of in DC/MD/VA where I live and on a Saturday!

I'd link the inspection video here but I don't know how to on my phone right now.

nadrealista

get ready for new rear motor...as I suggested earlier drill a hole above half-line in the rear coolant cartridge to ensure you don't fry rear motor on the way back home (and bring some coolant so you can add as it leaks out). you obviously have failed coolant seal in the rear motor so not sure why they did not replace your rear motor right then and there and gave you loaner so you can pick up your car on the way back....

Bill33525

This is another reason why I like the idea of staying with Audi. There are a lot of dealers around and many seem to know how to work on the eTron models.

mks632

I didn't think the front motor had any "coolant cartridge" - only a drain plug.

A4 Phil

I am going to set up an appointment at my local service for the end of the week, hopefully, just to have them take a look at the overflow canister and the two floats.

This tech in Denver, ran all of the isolation tests and though the motors passed every test, he was actually more worried about the front one because of the drip signs he had found there. But he also said that getting back home should be no problem. Just if the overflow canister has coolent there after the 1800 miles, there is an issue.

So, he said drive it across country and if the low coolant level light comes on find the nearest Audi Service enroute, and have it checked out when I get to DC.

Tronification

Agree with @nadrealista, there's a new motor with your name on it, being built right about now in Hungary.

From everything we've learned here, the seals eventually fail and the motors get fried, and there's no feasible preventative maintenance that one can perform to avoid that. Trade out of the car or buy that extended warranty and carry on.

A4 Phil

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AtrUH4lbAuSCmeF27diWVtOYl4j6Yw

Maybe I can share the video this way.

@nadrealista
@Tronification

nadrealista

Well we already know there is coolant leak issue since you rear cartridge was already full and you got low coolant light, but not only that it looks like your front motor has coolant leak as well. Knowing these two things and sending you on a cross country road trip seems irresponsible to me but let see how it turns out. better have back up plans ready if the car bricks in the middle of nowhere...good luck - let us know how it goes...

thebishman

Dealerships aren’t going to have a spare motor, front or rear just sitting on a shelf. If the service tech gets A4Phil through the rest of his road trip and back home, where a motor(s) replacement will be so much more logistically feasible, then he’s done him a big favour.

Tronification

Props to the dealership for explaining things in a no-BS manner on video!

I'm going to hazard a guess and say you're going for the double whammy, like I did. That was more than a little bit that came out from the front and the rear is leaking quite badly, considering that the can was full and there's only a quart or so of coolant in there to begin with. This is consistent with what I heard from techs before, i.e. when it starts leaking, the motor failure is not far behind.

Notice that you got the error while on a road trip, exactly like I did. I suspect there may be something about driving for extended periods of time that damages the seals (perhaps they just get hotter or there's some coolant starvation issue and they get chewed up).

From the lidar sensor visible in the video, it looks like you have a 2019. Get that extended warranty and let the motors fail when they may! Use the info in my recent thread and try to get a decent price for it (in all fairness, Audi should suck it up and extend the warranty for all of us early adopters).