ilya

So, for the fourth time now, my water temp gauge on the instrument cluster has decided that every time I am at a stop light, it should go up one notch, and then go down when I start moving again.

The previous three times I called the dealer, told them about it, brought the car in, they tried to fix it and then gave the car back saying "here, drive it for a while, bring it back if it's still broken".

The last time -- about a month and a half ago -- they seem to have fixed it. But on Friday the problem came back.

I'm _soooo_ tired of dealing with this thing. Does ANYONE have any experience fixing this problem for good via their dealers? Any suggestions? This time around I will tell the dealer that I don't want to see the car until they verify that they have solved the problem (or else I'll give them an unsatisfactory rating when Audi calls). But I really don't care much about that, I just want my gauge working, darn it!

Agent911

Fact: our instrument clusters are very sensitive.

Fact: you will experience same effect when you turn the car off and then on again after 2min or so


as long as it doesn't go into the red zone, that is normal. Not only does your TT do it, but almost 99% of TT out there do it.

The tech should have known better that this is the normal charateristic of TT only. although other cars share same engine, you will only see this in TT.

The temperature rise is there due to the way TT engine was configured. but it is meant to me like that and is harmless.

hope this helps.

TTschwing

You sit at Idle, a car gets hotter, you start moving it moves back to temperature equilibrium.
This is pretty normal on most cars. Have you switched your dash display to read digital temps to monitor this exactly?

ilya

i only know how to read the temp digitally via the AC controls, but that turns the AC on as well which seems to also cool the engine...

as for it being normal, I've never seen a car where the temperature gets off the "normal" marker, unless something is wrong with the cooling system... I understand that in theory, when the car is not moving, the engine can easily get hotter since there's no air moving to cool it. But isn't this the point when the cooling fan in the engine should start running? Or maybe I'm confused...

YosemyTT

related post above...any ideas Steve?

YosemyTT

I follow mine quite regularly and it seems to be in the high 80's to mid 90's under regular driving conditions. It's been waaaay off that lately though...check my post above about the wild needle!

Gnowknayme

The coolant temp will fluctuate, but the engine temp will not. If you use the Climate Control readout to look at the engine temp (coolant is 49 and engine is 51...Or maybe it's the other way around) you should see that the engine stays at 90C constantly, but the coolant will go up and down. Mine stays up to at least 90, and sometimes goes up to 110 if I idle for a long time.

If it bothers you to see that needle go up, you can give it just a little gas while you're sitting at a light to get your cooling fan spinning a little faster...Just a few hundred RPMs is all it takes.

YosemyTT

almost sure 49 is the ECT...not sure about 51 but you're prolly right

TTschwing

1. Turn on A/C control to auto

2. Press and hold the Recirc button while rotating (+) the right side control

3. Once you do this you will see a 1C in the LCD screen

4. Use the right dial to move through the numbers until you see 49C. Press the recirc button again and you will see temp readouts in Centigrade.

5. Normal reading is 90, but could go up to 105 under load or idle conditions.

YosemyTT

1. turn A/C on
2. Hit econ (saves engine power and perhaps gives better reading)
3. Hold recirc and press the ^ arrow at the same time

4. Move temp dial on left to select code

This works for me but I'll try it the Schwing way tonight and see if that works as well ;-)