I made the mistake of adding regular $5 crap for my antifreeze and soon enough I could smell antifreeze in the cabin and then there was the smoke and the quickly receding antifreeze levels. Today there was exceptionally high amounts of smoke and my temperature went over the halfway mark for the first time ever. I parked her as soon as I could.

Ive decided to flush and decided to use dexcool (because Im cheap) and ... its still smoking.......? antifreeze level is also receding. Oh, and heres the kicker.... my climate control isnt heating anymore.

Any ideas what could be wrong oh fellow ring masters.

 

heater control valve/heater core

I'm thinking...coincidence.

 

could be any number of things. im guessing you added antifreeze in the first place because it was low. the pink stuff in there is lifetime antifreeze so as long as there are no leaks you should never have to touch it. if it was disappearing that means you have a leak.

adding regular green antifreeze to pentosin G12 (pink, which is what is supposed to be in there) wont immediately kill your car, but it can turn from liquid to gel over time, which can kill your car.

theres probably a leak in your heater core. maybe mixing new stuff in unclogged a hole in it or something. you said theres smoke but you never said from where.

let this be your lesson to not cheap out on maintenance on these cars. if you do regular service as required, with the correct and approved parts and fluids, these cars last forever. if you cheap out you will hate your life, this car will drain your bank account faster then you can swipe a credit card.

 

Top up the coolant (with water) and run the car until it's warm. Pull the return line to the overflow tank. If there's no flow, you might have an airlock (it's been leaking) or a bad water pump. Additionally, flip the tank over and look for cracks. They appear white, usually around the dimples and seams of the tank and will often have coolant stalactites around them.

Either way, drain all of your coolant and replace it with Audi OEM specified coolant as it is a totally different composition than the other stuff on the shelves. Dexcool was probably the worst choice you could have picked. It's cheap because no one uses it anymore as there is a class-action lawsuit against GM for numerous coolant issues, supposedly due to Dexcool. Either way, your overheating is likely a coincidence. You've been losing coolant either due to overheating (and boiling the coolant) or a leak, not necessarily due to a bit of bad coolant.

One last thing, where was the smoke coming from? What engine?

 

When I was last at the stealership picking up a new headlight sprayer cover and I happened to ask about the coolant differences due to my still pursuant leak that I have yet to discover the official location of (its small though so I haven't put much effort into it) and he told me that it doesn't matter if you have G12 or regular green so long as it is phosphate free because phosphates will eat up the block and cause intense problems. While its more likely that the other suggestions are more likely, is there a chance you could have put in an antifreeze that had phosphates and it started chewing on the block? If the smoke was coming from the engine bay, that could be a possibility. Maybe? Techs?

 

So I flushed her up yesterday around 3 times, the coolant went low, topped it up again, and then it seems the smoking and leaking has subsided. The heater seems to have started working again; I probably just needed to give it some time.

I used Dexcool because it is very simillar in chemical composition to out G12's and its also phosphate free. Lets see how this goes...

 

If he had been running cheap coolant for years, that's a possibility. He recently switched to Dexcool (at least that's what I'm deducting from the post), which is just a crappy coolant, but it wont necessarily destroy the system so quickly.


Rockpundit: Did you find a leak? Stuck T-Stat causing it to boil out? Cracked tank? Coolant doesn't magically disappear. Pressure test the system and look for leaks.

 

Well at this moment, the car doesnt seem to be smoking at all with minimal leaks. I felt my way under the reservoir, and it seems theres a small crack on it. Ill take it off and have a look at it. Thanks for your suggestions guys.

 

It's only 3 screws...

Or a mirror and a flashlight...

 

^^ seriously. i have this thing out almost daily. its much easier to just remove then trying to get around it. its the only way to change your oil filter (unless you like doing things the hard way, then there are other ways of doing it...)