digli

Doing about 130 km/h on Sunday, I happened to glance down at my speedometer when I noticed my coolant temperature gauge begin to rise from the rock steady 90C that it usually sits at to 95, 100, 110. Yikes! A second later, the coolant temperature light comes on. I immediately shut the engine off and roll off the highway to the shoulder (it's amazing how far I travelled with the engine off at a decent highway speed before I had to pull out of the right lane).

I start my checkout at the side of the road: coolant level is fine and radiator fan is working (no need to check for a blown fuse as indicated in the manual --- let alone finding the fuse --- because it's not listed in the manual; besides, the fan is normally belt driven). So I wait about 10 minutes and fire it up again. The gauge shows normal --- for about 1 minute. Again the coolant temperature gauge starts to climb. I then notice that the oil temperature is also slowly starting to climb --- that ruled out a malfunction of the coolant temperature sensor --- I guess I did have a problem. I tried for a few more kilometres (now on a secondary road) with the heat and blower turned up to max. This helped only a little. Eventually the temperature started to climb again. So I shut it all down and called a flatbed to take it to the dealer.

I should know tomorrow what the problem is. I suspect (hope) that it's just a thermostat and not a broken water pump impellar/shaft.

Has this happened to any other A4's out there?


Dino G
'97 1.8tqms Wett Pearl

bugbbq

Would it help, being as we have a fresh-air dam? I wouldn't think that any heat would come off of the engine...

dingster

Definitely not the fan or fan clutch if it's over heating at speed. It's not likely caused by a bad pump if the mileage is fairly low.

®ob

Probably a stuck thermostat

zxqdp

Hasn't happenned to my A4 Avant (it's only 3 months old). However, I had a similar problem with my Acura, thermostat was stuck open so it took longer to get up to tempurate and ran cold when it was really cold outside. Sounds like you may have the opposite scenario, thermostat stuck closed.

WYSIWYG

the idea was from 'cannonball run', john candy's bimmer =)

RangeR BoB

THis circulates coolant and helps cool the motor off. The amount of heat produced by an idling engine is a trifle compared to the amount produced at highway speed.

It does sound like a bad thermostat or a bad pump. Good luck.

Andy Hedin

....is that the hot coolant flows through the heater core (think radiator) where the fan blows air across it to heat up the interior. By doing this, you possibly can help to cool the temperature of the coolant a bit.

digli

I found later that even idling caused the temperature to rise ---- I don't think there was any circulation at all.

D

'97 1.8tqms Wett Pearl

Longwolf (Christian)

I think I have a spare thermostat you can have for free if you want.