Under Heating Issue - Advice / Views ?

[davemark]

Hey All

I have a 2012 Audi A3 2.0TDI and it has a under heating issue

So about 6 months ago i notice the car is not getting to 90 , if it is it took forever !!! , so i take it to a local garage who diagnose it to be a thermostat, they replace this and for a short while it went away but then the same issue came back , went back to the garage and they put a genuine Audi part on it for me insted of OEM .. again went away for a bit but intermittently it still does not get to temp, the needle will go between 0 and 90.

So i took it to Audi main dealer just to get a second opinion and they said on their ramp in the workshop it gets to 90 fine so i think now it only drops when under load (driving)

So just to recap

• Replaced Thermostat
• Cambelt and Water pump been replaced
• Never seems to get to 90 would say stops circa 60 (mid way) if i really push car hard it will go up but will come back down again.
• car runs and drives fine
• Car gets hot on ramp and if leave it idle at home , only seems to drop under load

Can any one shed some light or offer anything else to check ?

Audi just wants to replace the thermostat again (as they did not do it) but don't want to throw money at it for the sake of it

Thanks in advance

Regards

Dave

 

[davemark]

Any ideas I’m so confused :/)

 

[ahtcap]

Is it manual or dsg?

 

[norris_309]

maybe temp sensor rather than thermostat? or airlock?
Be interesting to see what temperature reading you get when connected to vcds or similar?

My 2011 tdi is a bit slow to 90 & then does tend to drop down a bit, but from what i gather it's not a cheap swap out like the older pd engines! & the car is running fine, blowers still blow warm so i'm ignoring mine!

 

[theViTALiTY]

If its a DSG, there is a second thermostat close to the transmission mount.