POLO GTI 6C Cracked Radiator

[bullsta]

Morning all. Just been informed my radiator has cracked again and needs replacing.
Original was replaced 18 months ago and car has only travelled 15k since and I need another replacement.
No impact but we do live near some speed humps, although I always crawl over them?
Car is tuned with dogbone but no other mods.
Short trips everyday as I am retired and it is driven very sedately compared to my old tuned MK4 GTI which never suffered this issue.
Obviously I have had waterpump issues also but these are to be expected.
I am wondering if there is some kind of flex issue with where radiator meets chassis?
Any advice greatly appreciated as I cannot afford to kepp this car on the road if this continues.
2016 model with 85k only.
Thanks

[h100vw]

Do you know where it has failed. Is it a crack or has the fan shroud rubbed through somewhere? Would expect the shop to investigate the actual cause rather than just fire another rad into it

[Lucas_R]

Unless the radiator was faulty, or it was potentially damaged prior to installation/during installation, its ridiculous to think that a radiator would not last much longer than 18 months / 15,000km.

Where has it cracked? Has it cracked where the hoses connect to the radiator, or where the plastic end tanks connect to the actual metal radiator fins? If you are going to replace it then you may as well pay a little more and fit an all-aluminium radiator and then you should never have to worry about this again.

Both my cars are approx 10 years old and have just clocked 100,000km and are still on the original radiators.

[Buck0]

Hey Bullsta,

I recently spent 3 days in a friend's garage replacing the radiator in my 2016 6C GTI. It wasn't cracked, rather had a slow leak coming from where the aluminium core meets the plastic side tank/structure. It's not a complex job, it just takes time to be methodical to ensure everything aligns when putting it back together.

Then the water pump/thermostat started leaking. Kinda knew this was an issues but with the water pressure back to normal levels the thermostat housing was the next weakest link. I've just paid to have that replaced.

From reading here and other forums, the coolant system appears to be a known weakness on this model Polo/Golf. But a cracked radiator is new one for me. How did you go with the replacement?