That's the way I thought the flow would be. Just could get through my head that the cooled water from going through the radiator would be going right into the t-stat. So you have the cooled water trying to open the the t-stat?? So by that the lower hose should always be cooler then the top hose?
There is a little hose that goes down from the front neck to the wp is what heats the thermo and gets it to open. The bottom rad hose will always be cold until the thermo opens.. and should usually be colder than the top hose.. unless you've got a clogged rad.
yea, bottom hose should be considerably cooler if your radiator is doing its job.. unless the car is sitting idling, and the fan doesnt kick on, then the fan isnt doing much..
I bet the voltage regulator on the back of the cluster has failed.
I bet the voltage regulator on the back of the cluster has failed.
my car does the SAME THING.. and my fuel gauge never acts up. i DO KNOW that my car has a CHEAP thermostat in it tho. im too broke to replace it..
Yea I never had any problems with my fuel gauge either? Soon as I get to the dealer I'll get me a OEM t-stat and see what that does. Broke my throttle cable yesterday so now its sitting again. Back to driving the TDI Bug until I get some parts!
x2 on the thermostat, been chasing the same problem on my caddy for months.
Found a bad fan temp switch plug last week and thought that might be it.
Fan cycles great after fixing that but gauge still reads warm. Pulled the stat out sat. to have a look.
It had a gates 180f so for kicks I had a old oem 87c stat laying around. Bingo gauge only gets to the middle
now instead of near or at the red. No more aftermarket stats for me!!!
Well I spoke too soon , its doing the same thing again (running next to the red on the gauge)
Must be an electrical problem with the gauge/sender/wire/resistor. About time for a mechanical gauge.
unlike popular thought that engines like to run cold, our diesels actually prefer it quite a bit warmer than their gasoline powered brethren.
So that extra tick, isn't necessarily a bad thing.. If its running fine, what's the problem?

lol
just be careful. I got a bad one from VW and paid 50 bucks for it.
And you tell its bad, and they say its your old car thats bad.....
grrr.
hot is good for diesel.
hot for the wrong reasons isn't
no flow means, hot spots in the engine
bad
bad
Pete
Well I got my throttle cable fixed over the weekend and been driving it everyday sense Saturday. For some crazy weird reason the thing is working great, warms right up to temp(needle stright up)doesn't heat up, fan operates as is should when it sits and idles. I even spent the money for an OEM t-stat, guess I just put it on my spare parts shelf!
Maybe their was an air pocket floating around in their

Won't say its fixed for sure but its looking good. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for all the input
Well I got my throttle cable fixed over the weekend and been driving it everyday sense Saturday. For some crazy weird reason the thing is working great, warms right up to temp(needle stright up)doesn't heat up, fan operates as is should when it sits and idles. I even spent the money for an OEM t-stat, guess I just put it on my spare parts shelf!
Maybe their was an air pocket floating around in their
Won't say its fixed for sure but its looking good. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for all the input
mine does this too. then randomly one day, it starts acting up again!
the randomness of things is interesting. I am beginning to believe that vw's are haunted by the memories of Hitler starting the company.....