2015 AUDI A3 engine coolant

,&_ WARNING
California Proposition 65 Warning:
- Engine exhaust, some of its constituents,
and certain vehicle components contain
or emit chemicals known to the State of
California to cause cancer and birth de­
fects and reproductive harm. In addition, certain fluids contained in vehicles and
certain products of component wear con­
tain or emit chemicals known to the
State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm .
- Battery posts, terminals and related ac­
cessories contain lead and lead com­
pounds, chemicals known to the State of
California to cause cancer and reproduc­
tive harms. Wash hands after handling.
(D Note
When filling fluids, be sure not to mix the
fluids up. Otherwise severe malfunctions and engine damage will occur.
@) For the sake of the environment
You should regularly check the ground un­ der your vehicle in order to detect leaks
quickly .
If there are visible spots from oil
or other fluids, bring your vehicle to an au­
thorized Audi dealer or qualified repair fa­
cility to be checked.
Opening the hood
The hood is released from the interior.
Fig. 147 Sect ion of the driver's footwell: release lever
Checking and Filling 211
Fig. 148 Rocke r switch un der t he hood
Make sure the wiper arms are not raised up
from the windshield. Otherwise the paint
could be damaged .
The hood can only be released with the driv­
er's door open .
.,. Pull the lever under the instrument panel in
the direction of the arrow¢
fig. 147 .
.,. Raise the hood slightly¢,&. .
.,. Press the rocker switch under the hood up ­
ward
c:> fig. 148. This releases the catch.
.,. Open the hood .
.&, WARNING
Never open the hood when you see that
steam or coolant drips from the engine
compartment- there is a danger of burns!
Wait until no steam or coolant flows out.
- To reduce the risk of being burned, never open the hood if you see or hear steam
or coolant escaping from the engine
compartment. Wait until no steam or
coolant can be seen or heard before care­
fully opening the hood .
Closing the hood
.,. Push the hood down until the force of the
strut is overcome . -
.,. Then lower the hood and let it fall into the
engine hood latch -you do
not have to press
on the hood after it is locked. ¢ ,&. .
.&, WARNING -
A hood that is not completely latched
could fly up and block your view while driv­ ing.

212 Checking and Filling
- When you close the engine hood, check it
to make sure the safety catch has proper­
ly engaged. The hood should be flush
with the surrounding vehicle body parts.
Engine compartment overview
The most important check points.
- If you notice while driv ing that the hood
is not secured properly, stop at once and
close it.
Fig. 149 Typ ica l locat ion of the reservoir, en g in e oil d ipstick, and engine o il filler opening
(D Coolant expansion tank (- L) .. .
@ Engine oi l dipstick ... .... .. . .
® Engine oil filler opening (~) .
@ Brake fluid reservo ir ((0)) .. .. .
® Battery(+) under a cover .. .. .
@ Body ground point(-)
0 Washer f luid reservoir (~) ... .
@ Fuse housing ....... .... ... .
2 17
215
215
219
221
224
255
The engine oil filler opening and the dipstick (items ® and @)
c::> fig. 149 may be located in
a different area depending on engine version .
A WARNING ,...,___ -
Before you check anything in the engine
compartment, always read and heed all
WARNINGS
c::> page 210.
Engine oil
Engine oil specifications
The engine in your Audi needs the right kind
of oil.
The eng ine in your Audi is a sophisticated
power plant that was built to exacting specifi ­
cations . This engine needs the right kind of
engine oil that meets specifications regarding
quality and v iscosity so that it can run
II>-

216 Check ing and F illin g
@ For the sake of the environment
-Oil should never enter the sewer system
or come into contact with the ground .
- Pay attentio n to lega l requ irements
when disposing of empty oil containers .
Changing the engine oil
We recommend that have your oil changed by
an authorized Audi dealer or a qualified serv­
ice station.
Before you check anything in the engine com­
partment,
a lways r ea d and heed all WARN­
ING S
r=>page 210.
The engine oil must be changed according to
the intervals specified in you r Warranty
&
Maintenance book let. This is very important
because the lubricating properties of oil di­
minish gradua lly during norma l veh icle use.
Under some circumstances the engine oi l
should be changed more frequently. Change
oil more often if you drive most ly short dis­
tances, operate the vehicle in dusty areas or
under predominantly stop-and-go traffic con­
ditions, or have your vehicle where tempera­
tures remain below freezing for extended pe­ riods .
Detergent additives in the oil will make fresh
oil look dark after the eng ine has been run­
n ing for a short time. This is normal and is not
a reason to change the oil more often than recommended.
Because of the problem of proper disposal,
along w ith the special tools and necessary ex­
pertise required, we strongly recommend that
you have you r o il changed by an author ized
A udi de ale r or a q ual ified servi ce station.
If yo u choo se to c hang e your o il yo urse lf,
please note the following important informa­
tion :
.8, WARNING
To reduce the ris k of persona l injury if yo u
m ust change the engine oil in your veh icle
yourself : -
Wear eye protection .
- To reduce the risk of burns from hot en -
gine oi l, let the engine cool down to the
touch.
- When removing the oil drain p lug with
your fingers, stay as far away as possible.
Always keep your forearm parallel to the
ground to help prevent hot oil from run­ning down your arm.
- Drain the oil into a container designed
for this purpose, one large enough to
hold at least the tota l amount of oil in
your engine.
- Engine oil is poisonous. Keep it we ll out
of the reach of childre n.
- Continuous contact with used eng ine o il
is harmful to your sk in . Always protect
your skin by washing oil
off tho roughly
with soap and water.
(D Note
Never mix oil additives with your engine
oil. These additives can damage your en­
gine and adversely affect your Aud i Limit­
ed New Veh icle Warranty.
@ For the sake of the environment
- Before changing your oil, first make sure
yo u know where you can properly dispose
of the used oil.
- Always dispose of used eng ine oil proper­
ly. Do not dump it on garden soil, wood­
ed areas, into open st reams o r down
sewage drains.
- Recycle used engine oil by taking it to a
used eng ine oil collect io n fac ility in you r
are a, or contact a se rvice station.
coolant system
Coolant
The engine coolant performs two functions: it
keeps the engine from overheating and it pro­ tects the engine from freezing in the winter.
The cooling system is sealed and genera lly re-
quires little attention. .,..

The cooling system has been filled at the fac­
tory with a permanent coolant which does not need to be changed. The coolant consists of a
mixture of spec ia lly conditioned water and the
manufacturer's glycol-based coolant addi-
tive Gl3 antifreeze with anticorros ion addi ­
tives (50% fo r USA models; 60% for Canadian
models) . This mixture both assures th e neces­
sary frost protect ion a nd p rotects me tal com ­
ponents in the engine 's coo ling system from
corrosion and scaling.
It al so raises the boil­
ing po int o f the coo lant .
D o no t reduce the concentration of t he coo l­
an t in the summer by ad ding plain w ate r.
The
proportion of coolant additive must be at
lea st 50 % but not more than 60%
to main­
tain ant ifreeze protection and cooling efficien­
cy. If the coolant frost protect ion is too low ,
the coolant cou ld free ze and damage the veh i­
cle heating and eng ine cooling system.
F or yea r-round driv ing, antifreeze is added at
the facto ry for temperatures down to:
- -3 1 °F ( -3 5°C) USA
- -4 0°F ( -4 0°C) Canada.
If you must add coolant, use a m ixture of wa ­
ter and coolant addit ive. M ixing the coolant
addi tive wi th dist illed wate r is recom mend ed.
_& WARNING
Bef ore yo u check any thing in the e ngine
comp artme nt, alw ays re ad and hee d all
WARN INGS
¢page 210.
(D Note
- B efo re winter sets in, have the coolant
c hec ked to see if the c oolan t ad dit ive i n
you r vehi cle is su fficient t o mee t the cl i­
mate cond itions. This is especially impor ­
tant if yo u live in a region whe re the win­
ter is extremely cold. If necessary, in ­
crease the proport ion of coolant additive
to 60%.
- W hen addi ng coolant additive to your
cooling system, remember:
- We recommend using only coolant ad­
ditive Gl2 ++ o r Gl3 ( check t he label)
-
Che cking and Fillin g 21 7
for you r vehi cle. This coolan t additive is
avai lab le at authorize d Audi dea le rs .
Ot her types of antifreeze ca n sig nifi­
cantly reduce corros io n protection. The
res ulting corrosion can cause a loss of
coolant and serio us e ngine da mage .
- Do not add any type of rad iator leak seal­
ant to you r vehicle's engine coolant .
Add ing radiator repair flu id may adverse ­
ly affect t he function and performanc e of
yo ur cooling sys tem and co uld resu lt i n
damage not covered by yo ur New Ve hicle
L imi ted W arranty.
Adding coolant
Fi g. 152 En gine co mpa rtment: markin gs on t he coo l­
an t e xpan sio n t ank
Befo re you check a nyt hing in the eng ine com ­
partment ,
alway s read and heed all WARN­
INGS ¢ page 210.
Checking the engine coolant level
.,. Park yo ur vehicle o n a level su rf a ce .
.,. Switch t he ignition off.
.,. Read t he coolant leve l on the coo lant expan­
sion tank ¢
fig. 152. The coolant leve l must
be between the markings when the engine
in cold. When the engine is warm it can be
slightly above the upper mark ing .
Adding coolant
Req uirement : There m ust be a res idual
amount of coo lant in the expansion tank
c::> Q) .
.,. Le t the engine cool down.
.,. Place a clot h over the coo lant expans ion
tank cap a nd u nscrew the cap co unterclock-
wise
c::> _& . ..,.

218 Check ing and F illin g
• Add coolant mixed in the correct ratio
¢page 216 up to the upper marking.
• Make sure that the fluid level rema ins sta-
ble. Add more coolant if necessary.
• Clove the cap securely.
A coo lant loss suggests a leak. Immediately
drive your vehicle to an authorized repair fa­
cility and have the coolant system inspected.
If the coolant system is not leaking, a loss can
come from the coolant cooking through over­
heat ing and being pushed out of the coolant
system.
.8, WARNING
The cool ing system is under pressure and
can get very hot. Reduce the risk of scald­
ing from hot coolant by following these
steps .
- Do not open the coo lant expansion tank
cap with the engine hot . There is a risk of
burns.
- T urn off the engine and allow it to cool
down .
- Protect your face, hands and arms from
escaping fluid and steam by covering the
cap with a large, thick rag.
- T urn the cap slowly and ve ry carefu lly in
a counter-clockwise direction wh ile ap­
plying light, downward pressure on the
top of the cap.
- To avoid being b urned, do not spill anti­
freeze or coo lant on the exhaust system
or hot eng ine parts. Under certain condi­
t ions, the ethylene g lycol in engine cool­
ant can catch fire.
- The coo lant add itive and the coolant can
be dange rous to your hea lth. For th is
reason, keep the coolant in the or ig inal
conta iner away from children. There is a
risk of poisoning.
- Whe n work ing in the engine compart­
ment, remembe r that the radiator fan
can swit ch on even if the ignition is
switched off, wh ic h increases the risk of
persona l inju ry .
(D Note
Do not add coo lant if the expansion tank is
empty. Air cou ld enter the cooling system
and damage the engine. If this is the case,
do not continue dr iving. See your author­
i zed Audi dealer or qualified repair fac ility .
Radiator fan
The radiator fan switches on automatically by
itself
An a uxiliary electric radiator fan switches on
and off depending on coolant temperature
and other vehicle operat ing condit ions.
After you switch the engine off, the auxi liary
fan can continue running for up to 10 m inutes
- even w ith the ignition off.
It can even switch
on again later by itself¢.&. , if
- the temperature of the engine coo lant rises
due to the heat build- up from the engine in
the engine compartment, or
- the engine compartment heats up because
the vehicle is parked in intense sunlight.
.8, WARNING ,-
- To reduce the risk of personal injury nev-
er touch the radiator fan.
- The a uxiliary electric fan is temperat ure
controlled and can sw itch on suddenly
even when the engine is not ru nning.
- The auxiliary radiator fan sw itches on a u­
tomatically when the engine coo lant
reaches a certain temperature and will
continue to run until the coolant temper­
ature drops.

224 Checking and Filling
lead and must always be disposed of prop­
erly in compliance with a ll environmental
regulations. D isposing of vehicle batteries
improperly is very dangerous to the envi­
ronment.
Windshield washer
fluid container
Fig. 155 Engine co mp artmen t: cove r on the wind shield
an d h ead ligh t* washer fluid rese rvo ir
The washer flu id container is marked with the
symbol Won its cap
~fig. 155, ~page 212 ,
fig. 149 .
.. Before you check anyth ing in the engine
compartment,
always read and heed all
WARNINGS ~page 210 .
.. Lift the filler cap tongue to add washer flu­
id. You can fill the container to the top .
.. Press the cap back onto the f iller neck after
filling the container.
You can find the reservoir
ca pa city in the table
in ~
page 266 .
C lean water should be used when filling up.
If
possible, use soft water to prevent scaling on
washer jets. A lways add a glass cleaner solu­
tion (with frost protection in the winter) .
@ Note
- Do not mix engine coolant antifreeze or
any other additives to fill up the wind­
shield washer reservoir.
- Do not use a glass cleaner that contains
paint solvents, there is a risk of damag­
ing the paint.

Technical data
Vehicle identification
F ig. 187 Veh icle Identificat ion Number (VlN) plate: lo·
cat ion on driver's side dash pane l
XXXXX XX · X -XXXX XXX
~ fAllftlli. -llllll · NR. ~ W!ru -llllll -NO.
xx
XXXX XXXX XX X XXXXXXXX
XXX XXX
IYP /TYPE
XX XXXX XXX XX X X XX
XXX
KW XXX
®i ~W.::·f :l~~ XXXX XXX XXX
©+ ::rw= xxxx I xxxx XXX I xx
M. · AUSSt I IJ'IIDIIS
EOA 7D5 4UB 6XM SSG SR W
2EH JOZ 1LB lAS
18A
3FC SMU 7Xl
FDA 9G3 OG7 OYH
OJF
TL6 3KA 8EH
UlA X98 027
l XW 803 908 824 D2D
7T6 CV7 7KO 4X3 2K2
3L4 4KC 3YO 413 502
1SA 7GB 01A 4GO
XX . X XX X XX X XXXX
Fig. 188 The vehicle identification label- in side the
l uggag e compartme nt
Vehicle Identification Number (VlN)
The Veh icle Identifica tion Number is located
in different p laces :
- under the w indshield on the driver's side
¢fig. 187.
- in the MMI: Select: !MENUI button> Sys­
tems
control button or Car systems > Serv­
i ce
& co ntrol > VIN number .
-on the vehicle identification label.
Technical data 265
Vehicle identification label
The vehicle identification label is located in
the luggage compartment in the spare wheel
well.
T he label¢
fig. 188 shows the following vehi­
cle data:
(D Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)
@ Vehicle type, engine output, transmission
® Engine and transmission code
© Paint number and interior
® Optional equipment numbers
The information of the veh icle identification
label can also be found in your Warranty
&
Maintenance booklet .
Safety compliance sticker
The safety compliance sticker is your assur­
ance that your new vehicle complies with all
applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
Standards which were in effect at the time the
vehicle was manufactured . You can find this
sticker on the door jamb on the driver's side.
It shows the month and year of production
and the vehicle ident ification number of your
vehicle (perforation) as well as the Gross Vehi­
cle Weight Rating (GVWR) and the Gross Axle
Weight Rating (GAWR) .
High voltage warning label
The high voltage warning label is located in
the engine compartment next to the engine
hood release. The spark ignition system com­
plies with the Canadian standard ICES-002 .
Weights
Gross Vehicle Weight Rating
The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR), and
the Gross Axle Weight Rating (GAWR) for
front and rear are listed on a sticker on the
door jamb on the driver's side.
The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating includes the
weight of the basic vehicle plus full fuel tank,
o il and coolant, plus maximum load, which in ­
cludes passenger we ight (150 lbs/68 kg per
II>--

2 70 Con sum er Inf ormation
in P (Park position) and the park brake is
applied.
@) For the sake of the environment
- Changing the engine settings wi ll ad ­
versely affect emission levels . This is det­
rimental to the environment and increas­
es fue l consumption .
- Always observe env ironmental regula­
tions when disposing of old engine oil,
used brake fluid, dirty engine coolant,
spent batteries or worn out tires.
- Undeployed airbag modules and preten­
sioners might be classif ied as Perchlo­
rate Material -spec ial handling may ap­
ply, see www .dtsc .ca .gov/hazardous ­
waste/perch lorate . When the veh icle o r
parts of the restraint system including
airbag modules safety belts wit h preten­
s ioners are scrapped, all appl icable laws
and regulations must be observed. Your
a utho rized Audi dea ler is familiar with
these requirements and we recommend
that you have your dealer perform this
serv ice for you .
Additional accessories,
modifications and
parts replacement
Additional accessories and parts
replacement
Always consult an authorized Audi dealer be­
fore purchasing accessories .
Your vehicle incorporates the latest safety de ­
sig n features ensuring a high standard of ac­
tive and passive safety .
This safety could be compromised by non-ap­ proved changes to the veh icle. For this reason ,
if parts have to be replaced, p lease observe
the following points when installing addition­
a l accessories:
Approved Audi accessor ies and genuine Audi
parts a re ava ilable from authorized Aud i deal­
e rs. These dea
lers a lso have the necessary facili­
ties, tools and trained specialists to install the
parts and accessories proper ly .
A WARNING
=
Using the wrong spare parts or using non-
approved accessories can cause damage to
the veh icle and ser ious perso na l injury .
- Use on ly accessories express ly approved
by Audi and genuine Audi spare parts
- These parts and accessories have been
specia lly designed to be used on your ve­
h icle.
- Never install accessor ies such as tele­
phone crad les or beverage ho lders on a ir­
bag covers or within the airbag deploy ­
ment zones . Do ing so wi ll increase the
ris k of injury if a irbags are triggered in an
accident!
- Before you check anything in the engine
compa rtment, always read and heed a ll
WARNINGS
c:::> page 210 .
(D Note
-If items other than genu ine Audi spare
parts, add-on equipment and accessory
items are used o r if repair wo rk is not
performed ac cord ing to spe cified meth­
ods, this c an resu lt in seve re damage to
yo ur vehicle's eng ine and body (such as
co rrosion) and adversely affect yo ur vehi­
cle's warranty.
- If emergency repairs must be performe d
elsewhere , have the vehicle examined by
an authorized Audi dealer as soon as
possible.
- The manufacturer cannot be held liable
for damage wh ich occ urs due to failure
to comply with these stipu lations.
Technical Modifications
Our guidelines must be complied with when
t echnical modifica tions are made.
Always consult an authorized Audi dealer be-
fore start ing work on any modifications. ll>-