Author Topic: cooling system issues (Read 5406 times)

insdtanoodles · « **on:** January 25, 2007, 10:04:11 pm »

This morning was very very cold (-20) and I went on my way to work. Its a 60km drive and in the last 10km of the trip I turned off the heater and all of a sudden the coolant temp guage jumps from 90 to 100 degrees so I turn the heater on so it doesnt over heat and it slowly drops back down to 90. It also did it on the drive back home but I was testing to see if I could get it to go over 90 and it did like 15km into my drive home. I have always had little problems with my cooling system, some times it runs hot and some times it doesnt heat up but never this bad. Is this a thermostat problem because I just replaced it with a new one a few months ago, I bought it from frisco auto parts so I dont know the quality of it.

jtanguay · « **Reply #1 on:** January 25, 2007, 11:17:52 pm »

sounds like the OEM one i bought directly from VW OWASCO.

it runs really really hot... which is a good thing in the winter, but not for the summer.. i think i may have issues with my thermoswitch on the rad as well..

LeeG · « **Reply #2 on:** January 26, 2007, 01:55:35 am »

thermostat is my guess.

Are you sure about your antifreeze? If the theromostat is working but not sending much heat to the rad, and your antifreeze is marginal for that temp, the antifreeze could be getting slushy in the rad. So when you turn off heater and the thermostat opens a bit, there isnt much cooling going on. The motor wont need a lot of cooling at highway speeds with that low an ambient temp

Doug · « **Reply #3 on:** January 26, 2007, 08:13:02 am »

Assuming that you can rule out the ideas above then it sounds like your system is not pressurising. That is it is running at atmospheric pressure probably because the reservoir cap or coolant level sensor are not sealing in the reservoir container. Both are cheap to replace and probably need to be a service item every couple of years or so. If you are really cheap throw a can of Barrs Leaks in it to see what happens. There are other things far more costly but let's not go there yet!

jtanguay · « **Reply #4 on:** January 26, 2007, 09:22:09 am »

on the highway my car's coolant temp will get really really high... and then when i let off it it starts to cool back down. could be the turbo heating up the oil imo and the rad not being able to cool it enough.

jtanguay · « **Reply #5 on:** January 26, 2007, 01:30:23 pm »

well today was pretty damn cold... at idle and heater blowing my temp dipped to nearly the 1/4 mark on the gauge :shock: never seen that before with the new thermostat, but its probably because it was -20C outside... :lol:

insdtanoodles · « **Reply #6 on:** January 26, 2007, 03:27:03 pm »

on the ride home from work today it wasent very cold and I couldnt get the temp to go over 90, maybe my coolant did gel in the rad or something because I know a few months back it froze on me. I took out some coolant and put in stright anti-freeze but I never bothered testing it to check its freezing point.

AdAm84 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 26, 2007, 10:54:08 pm »

i had problems with my rabbit going from nornal operating temp to cold today. it was like 25F this morning. is this normal? maybe i should give it a bunch of fuel :twisted: :lol:

jtanguay · « **Reply #8 on:** January 26, 2007, 11:57:48 pm »

Quote from: AdAm84

i had problems with my rabbit going from nornal operating temp to cold today. it was like 25F this morning. is this normal? maybe i should give it a bunch of fuel :twisted: :lol:

on my '86 jetta td i could only get heat going 120km/h on the highway. anything less and it was real cold. stupid thermostat!

TomB · « **Reply #9 on:** February 05, 2007, 04:13:23 pm »

My temp gauge never really goes above the 1/4 mark, unless I've been running at speed, and then get stuck in traffic.
When was your coolant last flushed and changed insdtanoodles?

AdAm84 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 05, 2007, 09:38:06 pm »

York, huh? today it was like 8F and my temp gauge didn't get much over an eighth. when i got to school and was parked, it dropped to the cold side. Damn arctic blasts! :x

TomB · « **Reply #11 on:** February 06, 2007, 03:00:12 pm »

AdAm84 I think I might be a little further south than you :-) Only -3degrees C here.

jtanguay · « **Reply #12 on:** February 07, 2007, 08:17:55 am »

Quote from: "AdAm84"

York, huh? today it was like 8F and my temp gauge didn't get much over an eighth. when i got to school and was parked, it dropped to the cold side. Damn arctic blasts! :x

dude change your t stat... you will be oh so thankful that you did!!!! my car puts out lukewarm heat after idling 2 minutes. before it would take about 5 minutes of driving to get any form of heat... i'm lovin' it!

Author Topic: cooling system issues (Read 5406 times)

Doug

AdAm84

AdAm84