Car over heating

OPENM2KE

OPENM2KE

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Hi guys got a 2001 S3 8L, never had this issue before but last night when picking my girlfriend up from work I'd been on a short 4 mile drive round town. Temperature was fine running at 90 degrees. Sat in the car park with it on idle just looking at my phone the heard a beep. I thought I'm sure I don't need petrol, looked at the temp guage and it was past 100 degrees. Turned the engine off and popped the bonnet to let it cool. Fortunately the girlfriend was late out so I let it cool. Steadily drove home keeping an eye on the temp and it was fine never went above 90 degrees. Any idea what could've caused it and what I may need to do?

Cheers guys
 
Mine did this a while back, turned out to be the fuse box I top of the battery, I just replaced the whole lot.
 
were your fans running?
do they work?
fuses on top of battery first place to check if not.
a/c on should put the fans on permanent low speed if ambient temps >5'c Check they work
 
Water pump impeller may have shattered, if it's plastic, same thing happened on my old GTI, easiest way to check is to remove the thermostat, put your finger in the hole to feel if any of the impeller fins have broken, make sure you have a new dipstick tube first though, as will more than likely break it.
 
Yeah I heard that's also common, been driving the car today and it seems to get up to 90 very quickly literally like a mile or two but then it's staying there? I just don't get it? This car is my daily and I use it for work. I have a day off Wednesday but just unsure what to do
 
Suggests fans aren't operating properly...

Fans should operate at slow speed with aircon switched on... with aircon off fans kick in around 96 degrees on slow speed, high speed kicks in at just over 100 degrees (105 or there abouts from memory)...

Fairly common for the fan switch on the rad to pack up... easily test the fans by pulling the plug off, determining 12v feed in using a meter (can't remember the pin off hand) and bridging between 12v feed pin and the remaining pins in turn... this should spin up the fans in slow and fast speeds depending which you bridge and confirm fan operation...

Check fuses on the battery as Bill suggested, one of the three 30A fuses separate to the fuse bus bar are prone to corrosion and it melts the contacts causing high current draw and normally cause the contact to break or worst case to catch fire...

Eliminate an issue with the fans before moving on to the water pump...

<tuffty/>
 
we had a TT in today... steam coming out of bonnet on arrival.
128'c on vcds

All manner of "bodged" wiring on it.. Nett result no fans at all.

Thats some sort of record for unhappy hot car.

Shocking
 
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