S3 8L Overheating

[dhobbs88]

Hi,

I have been on this forum for a while but this is my first post as i did a quick search and couldn't find any info

I have a 1999 S3 which i absolutely love to bits but am having a few niggles with.

The main one is that my car over heated last night for the second time since I have owned it (5 months). It happens when the car has been run up to temperature. It is always the same situation where I get stuck in traffic and the temperature keeps rising until a warning comes up to say the coolant temperature is too high. The fan does not kick in at all. I have taken it to a garage (a guy my family has used for years and owns an a3) and he could find nothing wrong and managed to get the fan to start when he used it.

Has anyone had this problem? Or any ideas about what could be wrong. The previous owner said it did it to him once and he pulled the fuse for the fan out (behind the battery) and that worked for him.

Cheers

 

[<tuffty/>]

Sounds like the water pump needs replacing to me... the plastic impeller breaks on them

<tuffty/>

 

[Alex C]

i don't get why if the car was overheating the previous owner pulled the radiator fan fuse? Does it only overheat when stationary?

 

[dhobbs88]

cheers I'll phone the guy who looked at it last time and see if he checked the water pump. would that explain the fan not kicking in?

 

[dhobbs88]

and alex it only happens when the car is stationary or at low speeds i.e. traffic jams. never happens until the car has been up to temperature for quite a while. he turned the car off pulled the fuse out and put it back in and that seemed to fix it but it only happened to him once.

 

[Alex C]

i would have thought that if its fine at speed and overheats stationary then its because the fan isn't blowing any cool air across the radiator, obviously when your going at speed the radiator is getting plenty of cold air across it...

 

[<tuffty/>]

There are two controllers for the fans... the main one should kick the low speed in at around 96/97 degrees iirc... second one is the big brass jobber in the radiator...

Do the fans turn with the aircon turned on?

Checked the fuses on top of the battery?

I seem to recall another member having similar issues that turned out to be faulty fans

<tuffty/>

 

[dhobbs88]

i would have thought from when it does overheat its because the fans are not kicking in. i will check the fuses and see if the fans come on with the air con on my lunch break cheers guys

 

[leon1988]

water pump for sure 2 times overheated mate check your headgasket

 

[Tooks]

When the water pump went on my 1.8t A4, it overheated whilst driving too.

I'd check the fans, but also the thermostat. It may not be opening properly?

 

[s3mad_dude]

Yeah, when my water pump went on my pre-facelift many moons ago, it overheated whilst driving. Limped it to the garage in three short journeys with long periods of waiting between each!