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Yesterday the son mentioned a flashing and beeping from dash .Went home 50 yds and its been stood till today .This morning ,starts up ,temp gauge up to middle in a couple of miles,no heaters so pulled in and switched engine off .Bonnet up and expansion bottle is empty,topped up with coolant ,got a litre or so in ,level at max.Started up ,squeezed hoses etc ,heaters start working .Spotted a leak from back of the engine ,upper hose that goes to matrix.Drove 5 miles then warning again ,stopped ,topped up with water this time,seems ok again.
What are the chances of having cooked the engine ?Checked the levels last week and all were fine until yesterday .
Could it be the those crap spring hose clips have failed allowing coolant to run down the pipe then drip from its lowest point ?

Update- the beeping only started today ,but at no time either yesterday or today did the temp guage go over 90 ,which hopefully is good thing .

All sorted now . Mistakenly thought it was the pipe below the coolant temp sensor ,changed it for a modified version,still leaking .Turns out it was a smaller hose above the coolant temp sensor that goes up to a Tpiece .Fitted a short piece of hose and all is good .

Engine would be fine imo. I'd only worry if it happened at high speed and the warning light was ignored for a while. TDIs don't put out that much heat. Even in the summer, four hour stints on the motorway don't cause the radiator fan to come on. I'd sort out the hose issue and then observe. Don't lose sleep over it. IMO, worst case scenario is a cooked head gasket.

Ash

Cheers Ash .Checked expansion tank after a few days use and the level was down 300mm but this was probably down to all the air is now out of the system.Topped up to max and will check it again today .Overall everything seems fine.
If only Rover had fitted a coolant level sensor like on these cars .