Temperature gauge woes

Interesting thread. I have recently had an issue along these lines. The temp gauge is very slow to react, in fact it will likely stay at 60Deg for most of a trip (under 10 miles). Recently I had the car on a longer trip and it was quite cold, the temp gauge was up at 80Deg and I put the heating on full blast, the gauge plummetted to 60Deg and the only way of getting it to move was by switching the heating off again. Any ideas?

Both the Temp Sensor and Thermostat have been changed within the past 6 months :confused:
 
mrbroons said:
... the temp gauge was up at 80Deg and I put the heating on full blast, the gauge plummetted to 60Deg ...
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Turning the heating on full-blast does suck a lot of heat from the engine when it's cold. The more efficient the engine, the less heat it generates. 10 miles isn't enough to get my engine up to temp on it's own in winter. Try turning the air flow down low in order to conserve heat.

Having said that, '80' on the dial covers a wide temperate range (70 to 90 or so), so maybe the thermostat has aged and moved towards the bottom end of that range.
 
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mrbroons said:
Interesting thread. I have recently had an issue along these lines. The temp gauge is very slow to react, in fact it will likely stay at 60Deg for most of a trip (under 10 miles). Recently I had the car on a longer trip and it was quite cold, the temp gauge was up at 80Deg and I put the heating on full blast, the gauge plummetted to 60Deg and the only way of getting it to move was by switching the heating off again. Any ideas?

Both the Temp Sensor and Thermostat have been changed within the past 6 months :confused:
Click to expand...

Hi
To be honest, that al sounds normal to me.

These cars can take a while to warm up anyway, especially in cold weather and thge tempoerature guage seems to stay very low until it gets to normal and then moves quickly upo.

Switching the heating on full is taking the heat from the engine and blowing it into the cabin and again, in cold weather, this is going to cool the engine down.

So I wouldn't worry about it, it seems to be operating as a typical A2 temperature.

Steve B
 
Birchall said:
Hi
To be honest, that al sounds normal to me.

These cars can take a while to warm up anyway, especially in cold weather and thge tempoerature guage seems to stay very low until it gets to normal and then moves quickly upo.

Switching the heating on full is taking the heat from the engine and blowing it into the cabin and again, in cold weather, this is going to cool the engine down.

So I wouldn't worry about it, it seems to be operating as a typical A2 temperature.

Steve B
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+1.

My old TDi with the Webasto running (when lower temperatures permitted) used to warm up more quickly AND provide cabin heat. My problem used to be lots of small trips for business when the outside temperature was over 7°c. Then the webasto wouldn't run, the engine didn't have time to heat up and I had NO HEATING.

As much as I loved my 3 cylinder TDi, the winter months I spent in it were not the happiest.

The price you pay for efficiency I guess.

P.S. The A8's webasto can be manually operated (and set by a timer) from the MMI, once you have activated the secret menu with VCDS.

I always used to wonder if there could have been a way to operate the webasto in the A2 similarly,.. Would use a bit more diesel yeah, but would warm the cabin and the engine/coolant too.
 
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johnmed said:
+1.

My old TDi with the Webasto running (when lower temperatures permitted) used to warm up more quickly AND provide cabin heat. My problem used to be lots of small trips for business when the outside temperature was over 7°c. Then the webasto wouldn't run, the engine didn't have time to heat up and I had NO HEATING.

As much as I loved my 3 cylinder TDi, the winter months I spent in it were not the happiest.

The price you pay for efficiency I guess.

P.S. The A8's webasto can be manually operated (and set by a timer) from the MMI, once you have activated the secret menu with VCDS.

I always used to wonder if there could have been a way to operate the webasto in the A2 similarly,.. Would use a bit more diesel yeah, but would warm the cabin and the engine/coolant too.
Click to expand...

Kufatec do a kit to remotely operate the webasto I believe, not cheap but could be worth it.

Steve B
 
Sorry should have pointed out that this doesn't happen on my other 1.4 which heats up really quickly and the temp stays at 90. Very odd!
 
mrbroons said:
Sorry should have pointed out that this doesn't happen on my other 1.4 which heats up really quickly and the temp stays at 90. Very odd!
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Hi

The temperature sender you fitted recently, was that from Ebay or Audi?

If both cars are identical (both petrol A2s being driven in similar circumstances) then perhaps the sender you fitted might be faulty?

Steve B
 
spike said:
Pics of the temp sender and location on a 2001 TDi
The sender unit is just below the bright nut in the center of the pic (metal bracket removed for clarity)

Cheers Spike
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Could you possible reattach those images as I cannot seem to find them. Cheers.
 
Vesaam said:
Could you possible reattach those images as I cannot seem to find them. Cheers.
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I know this is an old thread but hoping someone here can help.

After some trolling around I managed to find it the image. I had my temperature sender changed along with the o ring and u shaped clip. Any lossed fluid was replenished however the temp gauge still does not go above 60°.

The gauge itself seems to work as it rises a little when the car is started. Cold and hot air comes out fine so I assume the thermostat is ok.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance.
 
Birchall said:
Hi

The temperature sender you fitted recently, was that from Ebay or Audi?

If both cars are identical (both petrol A2s being driven in similar circumstances) then perhaps the sender you fitted might be faulty?

Steve B
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It was ECP so it may well be suspect!!
 
Update: Maybe this will help someone.

I gave my car a full service, changed the timing belt, water pump, fan belt and temp sender and the temp gauge seems to work.

The very first thing I did was change the sensor which didn't appear to do anything. Once the other work was carried out, the gauge appeared to work.

The gauge will go up to 70/80/90° etc however I have noticed that it plummets down to 60° when the cabin heaters are on.

After tonnes of reading this quite 'normal', not just in A2 but with Audi's in general.

Cheers, Ves.
 
Many thanks, that is good news, my heater always stayed warm regardless, but not really super hot.
 
Interesting thread this.Our temp gauge gets up to 90 degrees quickly and stays there although the heater never seams to get really hot. Really strange as all our other audis do! Is this typical of the A2?
 
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mrbroons said:
Interesting thread. I have recently had an issue along these lines. The temp gauge is very slow to react, in fact it will likely stay at 60Deg for most of a trip (under 10 miles). Recently I had the car on a longer trip and it was quite cold, the temp gauge was up at 80Deg and I put the heating on full blast, the gauge plummetted to 60Deg and the only way of getting it to move was by switching the heating off again. Any ideas?

Both the Temp Sensor and Thermostat have been changed within the past 6 months :confused:
Click to expand...

Hi,

it sounds like your engine is being overcooled. I made a note of how long it took for my engine (1.4 petrol) to get to the indicated 90C yesterday and it was 3 miles (2 miles @ 70MPH, 1 in town). Once at 90 I have never seen it go down, even with the heater on full.

From the symptoms I would say thermostat straight away. It sounds like too much coolent is being allowed to flow through the engine radiator when the engine is below operating temperature, preventing it from reaching the correct templerature. With already too much cooling, adding extra cooling to the system from the cabin heater will further reduce the engine temperature. As you say its been recently replaced, perhaps the replacement is faulty / incorrectly fitted / the wrong type?

If you check the radiator hoses and they are warm but the engine isn't warmed up yet, the thermostat is probably faulty.

regards

Andrew
 
Would someone be so kind as to let me know (if they know or can test) how long it takes their 1.4 to register heat sitting at idle on a cold morning say around zero deg? Literally my car will never show that it is heating on the gauge and the vent temp will only rise slightly. Many thanks. Going in soon for MOT and new lambda sensor so will be checked then but the car is almost useless in cold weather at present due to the lack of heat provided
 
mrbroons said:
Would someone be so kind as to let me know (if they know or can test) how long it takes their 1.4 to register heat sitting at idle on a cold morning say around zero deg? Literally my car will never show that it is heating on the gauge and the vent temp will only rise slightly. Many thanks. Going in soon for MOT and new lambda sensor so will be checked then but the car is almost useless in cold weather at present due to the lack of heat provided
Click to expand...

At idle? If you haven't got a webasto coolant heater running and it's a diesel it'll never reach a decent temp at idle ... not burning enough fuel to do so. The temperature gauge first starts registering at about the 60c mark.

If you have a 2002 diesel or earlier, it should have a webasto. The webasto will only come on if ECON is off, and also it's 7c or under. The webasto burns extra diesel & heats the coolant - sounds like a mini jet engine once it gets going. In terms of fuel economy, a few years ago I roughly calculated that the break-even point would be if the journey is 10 miles or longer, i.e., a cold engine is less fuel efficient, but in order to get it to heat up you need to burn extra fuel.

If you have a later diesel then it has an electrical heater I think (it's an air heater not a coolant heater so won't affect the temp gauge). Probably also requires ECON to be off (not 100% sure though). Without the webasto you need to be actually driving (not sitting at idle) for the coolant temperature to significantly rise - when it's cold and the webasto is off it takes 10 - 15 miles.

Tips to get the engine temperature higher quicker - air flow should be set low, temp 18c (i.e., to stop cold air being blown into the cabin, and to reduce heat loss from the engine, but still provide the minimum comfortable temp in the cabin), use an ice scraper & anti-fog wipes, bucket of cold water to defrost windscreen (not hot water because you can crack the screen), driving gloves + coat, start driving immediately as soon as the windscreen is clear.
 
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