hey guys and gals im having a little trouble with my car... let me tell you a story about 2 weekends ago i installed a 56mm radiator, everything went really smooth and i had no problems, or so i thought... 1 week ago i was traveling at about 70km/h and not putting any major stress on the engine, i looked at my temp gauge after about 5 minutes driving and it was 3/4 hot, i shat my self and pulled over at the nearest stop, opened the hood to see if i could find anything obvious (which i couldnt) i restarted the engine about 5 mins after and it was fine, back to normal temp and it continued that way for the rest of the day. last night the same thing happened except when i pulled over then restarted the engine it was still hot. the weird thing was that the temp gauge was moving (quite rapidly) from normal to very hot to 3/4 hot and it just seemed very jumpy. ive had a think about it overnight and have come to the conclusion that either its a electirical fault with my temp gauge or my thermostat is on its way out btw its a 89 tt with 82,000km, oh and im gonna install a aftermarket temp gauge this weekend...:biggrin: any help would be appreciated cheers chris
Aftermarket tmp guage is a start, but has your thermostatbeen replaced since you had the car (100k service)??
Have you checked your coolant levels? I had a similar problem (never actually overheated), with the temp guage giving funny readings, would go up then down, coolant was a little low, after topping it up everything functioned normally. Next step after this would be to see what is causing the leak. For me first time it was small leak in front radiator hose. Had that replaced. Few months later happened again from under plenum hose. So had plenum pull done. Happened one last time, heater core went, so had bypass done. Luckily my good perifiral vision picked up the temp guage funny business early so I avoided any overheating, and it all happened very close to home. The only thing that sucked was getting it towed all the way to PZP. So yeah, check your coolant levels, you may have a small leak which you are unaware of. If that isnt the problem, your radiator may be blocked, have it rodded and flushed. Or you may have a problem with your rad fan.
Cant suggest anything more than what the other guys have said so far but I gotta say 82k on an '89 model, if they are genuine, thats impressive. Could try to sum it up though... - Check coolant levels, may have small leak and unaware - Make sure your shroud is installed properly, if you dont have one, get one - If you've gone electric fan, may have to look into going back to engine driven fan - Aftermarket Temp gauge good idea, look into it - Check out these things called TWDs, Temperature Warning Device. Quick search on the forums will give you ze answer - Thermostat may be on its way out, dirt cheap, look at replacing - Good luck MoulaZX
