Thermostat

When mine went it wouldn't go above 1/4 way up the scale, remember the weather is colder, i've noticed a 1-2 mpg drop since the cooler weather has snuck in, takes longer to warm the engine up which means it's running rich for longer. And you're using the heaters which take heat from the coolant.
 
acemastr said:
When mine went it wouldn't go above 1/4 way up the scale, remember the weather is colder, i've noticed a 1-2 mpg drop since the cooler weather has snuck in, takes longer to warm the engine up which means it's running rich for longer. And you're using the heaters which take heat from the coolant.
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Yes, i am running the heaters from the get go. Heaters do start chucking warm air after a few minutes. Car warms up to the middle mark on the guage within 10 minutes at the absolute maxium, normally less (say 6 minutes).

I have so far only seen the guage drop slightly coasting downhill. Everything i read on the internet about it is conflicting. Some say that if the temp guage ever drops after the car has got up to temperature, it means the thermostat is sticking open, some say it is completely normal :p
 
Matt82 said:
get it connected up to vagcom and youll see the temp being reported to the ecu

then youll know what the coolant temp is rather than trying to guess what the damped gauge is telling you
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I dont have easy access to vag-com but will try and get it read soon by my local specialist.
 
if you have an android phone, an app called torque plus a £10 obd dongle will give you a very quick easy way to monitor things like this too
 
Matt82 said:
if you have an android phone, an app called torque plus a £10 obd dongle will give you a very quick easy way to monitor things like this too
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Oh right, thats sounds useful. Do you have a link to a guide on how to use it/what dongle to buy?
 
Matt82 said:
the app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.prowl.torque&hl=en

the dongle
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1GSDGYQAQJ8JND6MBWAC

then just keep clicking buttons until it work

you get 5 pages for live data which you can put all sorts of gauges on

i have one page for coolant and intake temperatures plus voltage


then boost and maf air flow

then throttle/ignition timing/revs

then a page for lambda activity

all very boring/geeky stuff
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Thanks.

I'll get one fof those dongles and have a play.

I presume it isnt going to do any damage to the engine if the thermostat is a little dodgy for a bit? I mean the temp needle is bang on centre at all times apart from when i am coasting down this hill for ages : /.
 
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i highly highly doubt it. there will be countless other cars in the road in far far worse state of repair

a few degrees down on water temp wont be terrible and given how you said it warms up in a broadly similar time to before, id expect that its just due to the cold

the ecu, however, will tell you actually what temp the coolant is. in normal circumstances id expect you to see mid 80s
 
The temperature should not move from 90c once up to temp, the cluster has it heavily weighted. Mine never moved from 90c even when it was indicating -26c outside.

If your vRS has climate control you can get it to display the actual coolant temp. Push the econ button and the vent button with the arrow pointing up at the same time, you then use the left dial to move the left display to 19 the middle dial to get 19.2 on the left display the right display will then show the actual coolant temp. For reference mine with an outside temp of 2c sat at 79c, even off the throttle going down a fairly large hill it only dropped to 78c.

The temperature hasn't dropped enough to knock 1-2mpg off my consumption I find it needs to be in constant negative temperatures to notice a drop. The climate control also doesn't turn up the fans/heat until the coolant is at a reasonable temperature.
 
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Dangerous Dave said:
The temp should not move from 90c once up to temp, the cluster has it heavily weighted. Mine never moved from 90c even when it was indicating -26c outside.

If your vRS has climate control you can get it to display the actual coolant temp. Push the econ button and the vent button with the arrow pointing up at the same time, you then use the left dial to move the left display to 19 the middle dial to get 19.2 on the left display the right display will then show the actual coolant temp. For reference mine with an outside temp of 2c sat at 79c, even off the throttle going down a fairly large hill it only dropped to 78c.

The temperature hasn't dropped enough to knock 1-2mpg off my consumption I find it needs to be in constant negative temperatures to notice a drop.
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Oh yes i forgot the climate control can show all sorts of readings, thanks! I will do this and monitor the temperature on my next journey to work and see what is happening.
 
when my S4 had a bad stat i checked the coolant temp on the climate control

if in traffic it would go up to normal ish temps but as soon as you moved it went down to 60 ish but the gauge did obviously move too
 
Dangerous Dave said:
The temperature should not move from 90c once up to temp, the cluster has it heavily weighted. Mine never moved from 90c even when it was indicating -26c outside.

If your vRS has climate control you can get it to display the actual coolant temp. Push the econ button and the vent button with the arrow pointing up at the same time, you then use the left dial to move the left display to 19 the middle dial to get 19.2 on the left display the right display will then show the actual coolant temp. For reference mine with an outside temp of 2c sat at 79c, even off the throttle going down a fairly large hill it only dropped to 78c.

The temperature hasn't dropped enough to knock 1-2mpg off my consumption I find it needs to be in constant negative temperatures to notice a drop. The climate control also doesn't turn up the fans/heat until the coolant is at a reasonable temperature.
Click to expand...

Ok, so i have driven home with 19 - 2 selected on the climate control and it read 76~ all the way. Went up to 78 sitting in traffic, down to 75 ( lowest i saw it go) when going at speed.

I will have to test the downhill section tomorrow on my way to work.

That is too low right? I though the correct operating temperature was 90 degrees?

N.B. Temp guage was showing to be bang in the middle the whole way home.

When you say at a stand still at 2 degrees ambient it was 79 degrees, did you mean 89?
 
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Jono8 said:
Ok, so i have driven home with 19 - 2 selected on the climate control and it read 76~ all the way. Went up to 78 sitting in traffic, down to 75 ( lowest i saw it go) when going at speed.

I will have to test the downhill section tomorrow on my way to work.

That is too low right? I though the correct operating temperature was 90 degrees?

N.B. Temp guage was showing to be bang in the middle the whole way home.
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Mine was at 79c today for most of my journey, I had a couple of bikes on the roof going into a headwind and it went up to 82c. The gauge sits at 90c for I assume no other reason than it is in the middle of the gauge.
 
Dangerous Dave said:
Mine was at 79c today for most of my journey, I had a couple of bikes on the roof going into a headwind and it went up to 82c. The gauge sits at 90c for I assume no other reason than it is in the middle of the gauge.
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Hm, maybe mines a bit low then, but doesnt seem drastically lower than yours. I let it idle for 5 minutes and it just seemd to sit at 78 degrees. Warm up to middle of the guage temperature still never takes longer than 10 minutes.

I understand the stat on this engine is a pain to do and will be 2-3 hours of labour so don't want to part with the best part of £200 for no reason.
 
Jono8 said:
Hm, maybe mines a bit low then, but doesnt seem drastically lower than yours. I let it idle for 5 minutes and it just seemd to sit at 78 degrees. Warm up to middle of the guage temperature still never takes longer than 10 minutes.

I understand the stat on this engine is a pain to do and will be 2-3 hours of labour so don't want to part with the best part of £200 for no reason.
Click to expand...

My car is a Golf so it could explain a small difference, the bikes on my roof would also put the engine under more strain. I wouldn't be worried if it doesn't drop under 70c.
 
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