EF99

My 2012 is coming up on 2 years old, and while I've never had to add oil, I do have to add coolant (or distilled water). Just added some today while doing some regular checks, and in the past year the coolant level has dropped 15 ounces.

I don't suppose this necessarily means anything is wrong, but I was wondering (for those of you that pay attention to these things yourself and add yourself) if this amount of coolant loss is proving to be typical for S4's?

Are there any known issues where coolant loss is a symptom? If there are no issues then I suppose it must be evaporation from the overflow canister (I live in the desert) but 15 ounces seems like more than you'd get from evaporation over a year.

thomasjordan

There are some other threads on this. My 2011 seems to very slowly lose coolant as well, and I'm pretty sure it's not leaking anywhere (I've looked all over/under for signs of a leak, and my s4 is pretty much a garage queen). Only thing I can figure is that some of it is being lost in the cooler for the supercharger, which is a bit scary that coolant may be getting into the intake. Can't see how a closed system would be losing coolant, but mine slowly drops at a similar rate to yours.

whs3

I put a few ounces in every couple of months (50/50 mix with distiller water and VW coolant). Seems like more in the summer. Had the same close loop question and dealer said could be evaporation. Never seen evidence of a leak.

EF99

Thanks.
Too bad no one knows the source of the loss. If it's evaporation then just adding distilled water would be best to keep the concentration constant. If it's losing the mixed coolant in bulk somehow, then adding a 50/50 mix would be best.

I guess the way to figure that out is to monitor the concentration with a refractometer (kind of pricey) or one of the ball float devices that are about $15 bucks (but I think there are different types for different coolant ingredients; not sure).

EF99

I was also wondering, is everyone using G13 now, not G12++ (and for some strange reason my coolant reservoir says G12 on it, not G12++ as the manual says).

DrGP

Mine has lost a little since taking delivery in August and I have less than 3K miles on the car. I am monitoring it closely and will have it checked out at my 5K service if I continue to lose fluid. I put a piece of tape on the reservior to mark the fluid level when I filled it last to see if the level drops. I have been putting in G12++. I also wondered about the G12 text on the reservoir.