Passat (B7) :: 2012 / 2.0 TDI Engine Temperature Too Low - Gauge Will Go Up And Down
May 4, 2016
I have a 2012 Passat 2.0 TDI (140) DSG
Sometimes the engine temperature stays low for an entire drive. Regardless of speed - it has happened while sitting in traffic for hours or while sitting at 70mph.
When this is happening, the engine temperature gauge will go up and down, but never reach 90, and the oil temperature reading fluctuates from around 60 to 80. Also the air into the car doesn't get hot enough, but now we're out of winter that doesn't matter too much.
But then other days it will be 100% fine - it rises up to 90 within 10 minutes of a cold start and stays there the whole day - and the oil temperature sits between 90 and 100.
I've taken it to a couple of VW dealers but obviously it behaves perfectly on those days! I remember reading something about a thermostat that circulates coolant to the DSG box, which can cause these kinds of symptoms?
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Recently (3 months ago) I had the timing belt, thermostat , water pump changed . Just yesterday I noticed that the engine temperature gauge was all the way to the left and did not seem to be functioning. I do not know if it had been like this for the 3 months since the maintenance work....maybe not. But, the guage is not working.
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I have a 2003 Passat and the engine temperature gauge will read 190 normally and then suddenly drop to almost zero, stay there for a while then head back up.
I purchased a temp sensor to replace the old but for the life of me I can seem to locate it. I know it's in the back or rear of the engine somewhere.
BTW, the car has the 1.8 engine.
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I have a 99 Passat GLX VR6 and the temperature gauge basically works when it wants to. Of course the darn thing works when I take it to the dealer to get checked.
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I just picked up a 2004 1.8T 5 speed 4 motion. It drives well, however i noticed some bugs. For one, the temperature gauge seems to bounce up and down a bit. I check the vag, and the car never gets abobe 75c, and usually sits around 70c when im cruising on the highway. So i changed the green top sensor to start, and I think it may be wrong, cause now the engine fan always stays on, and the temp problem is still there. SO now I have this fan issue, and still a temp problem. Did I change the wrong sensor totally? Is it my thermostat?
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Typically after driving for 5 minutes or so my temp gauge is in the middle at 200f. After about 15 min of moderate 35-45 mph driving it went down a notch below the 200 mark after it had reached 200f. I've noticed this happen a few times recently. I did notice that it happens while coasting downhill. I guess i'll be taking it it to my mechanic to take a look.
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02 Passat 4Motion with the 3.0L V6. I just had the car at the dealer 2 weeks ago for the 50K service and to have the temperature gauge fixed. Otherwise, the car was running just fine. At the service, they replaced the water temp sensor, performed a fuel injector service and radiator flush (both recommended).
Now two weeks later, her car rough idles, dies and has to be towed to the same dealership. They first diagnose fouled plugs which they replace gratis. They then tell me the plugs fouled because the ignition coil and wires have gone bad and need to be replaced. They want to do an additional injector/intake cleaning service. They are offering to discount the services slightly. I'm still going to be out another $850.
I called Volkswagen Customer Service and they confirmed that the ignition coils were not covered under the recall.
Something sounds "off" to me. The car was running fine before the initial service. Was the dealer just being "nice" in comparing the plug replacement or did he think that they initial fuel injector service may have fouled the plugs? I don't really want to pay 2x for the same service and now the coil/wire replacement.
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For the past two days, the coolant temperature gauge has registered cold (far left) all of the time. Just the day before, it registered about center when the engine warmed up, it's typical location.
The vehicle seems to run just fine, and the coolant level looks good. Is it safe to drive it to a shop (~35 miles) to be fixed?
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Last fall I had my radiator flushed and at the same time my coolant overfill canister with built in temperature guage sensor was replaced with a new unit. (The service station replaced the resevoir canister with a new unit in the engine compartment, because they felt the sensor is prone to failing after 7 years.)
Ever since, my temperature gauge needle on the dash will randomly drop (even when the car is up to FULL OPERATING TEMPERATURES) showing the engine being cooler than it out to be. In other words the needle drops signifying to a much lower water temperature. After a period of time the needle will recover back to the normal full operating temperature mark on the dash gauge.
What could cause this? Inside my radiator do I have a "diafram" temperature valve that could be failing /"sticking?" In other words could a temperature valve in the radiator be sticking at odd or random times??? I also notice that my heater does not put out the usual full furnace heat that a Passat is know for. The temperature is about 1/3 cooler now that we are into winter temperatures.
Is my heater core clogged?
Could the new coolant sensor in the new coolant overfill chamber not be working well? This whole situation began AFTER my radiator was flushed, and AFTER I had the coolant reservoir canister and sensor replaced.
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I have a '99 1.8T Passat. The coolant temperature gauge normally reaches operating temperature of 190 degrees within about 5 minutes and stays there. For some reason, after reaching 190, it sometimes drops by 20-30 degrees and is running cooler than normal. Once time it dropped down, then came back up again, while driving a steady 65 mph. The coolant level is full and nothing else has changed.
I guess there are a few possibilities: a thermostat stuck open too far, a failing temperature sensor, bad gauge, or loose connection at the sensor. The car has 145K miles and the thermostat and water pump were replaced at about 100K miles. What is going on? If it runs a little too cool, is that a big deal? How would I diagnose it? Where is the temperature sensor?
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Resurrecting my 940 TD after it's been sitting for a year and the temperature needle now doesn't rise as the engine warms up. Is there any trouble with sensors on these or should i be concerned about something else? It was working when I stopped using the car.
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My sister drives a 2005 Nissan Altima. I am not real familiar with Japanese OEMs but I do most of my own repair work on my car (which currently has issues of its own). What's wrong and how do I go about making the repair...
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Since I bought the car I noticed my temperature gauge has never even touched the middle mark on the instrument panel. Is this normal or is my thermostat hung open?
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I have never seen any of my other cars do this and I just want to see if this is normal. It happens like clockwork every time I get in the car with a cold engine. I let the car sit while the RPMs are high and as soon as the tach drops I start to drive the car softly. The engine temp gauge reaches normal operating temp in a normal amount of time, it does not just jump to the middle. But after about 1 minute it just starts falling quite quickly, as you can see in the video. It's very predictable - happens every time I drive it so it was easy to catch on video. I don't notice any difference in engine performance. Is this normal for a VW GTI or is something wacky going on?
You can skip to 19-20 seconds in the video to see the needle drop.
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I have a 2003 Malibu with 29,000 miles on it. I notice my temperature gauge reads a bit over the half way mark when driving around town. I don't notice any type of coolant leak. The gauge almost always reads above the half point, but never gets to the point of overheating. Sometimes it comes close to it but never actually overheats.
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My car recently turned over 120,000 miles. I have owned her for 5 years. Currently, the engine temperature gauge needle is moving all over the place. It typically registers the correct temperature (I think), but sometimes it goes all the way over to the red, then peaks and falls back down to the midline.
Before this started happening, the needle would lie just below the midline when traveling on the highway and just above the midline when driving in town. Yesterday, it was lying between the 1/4 mark and the midline -- much lower than normal. Is this as simple as just replacing the temperature sensor?
My mechanic noticed a month ago that the transmission hoses are all swollen and in need of replacement. Is this related?One more thing, within the last week, the electrical system fails while driving, but just for a second. I can tell because the radio goes out. Once, it went completely dead, then came back on within 2 seconds. It made me think of the alternator, but it seems if that were the case it would go dead and not come back on, no?
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Car: 2006 sonata GLS V6, 62,000 mi
Abstract of symptom: Delayed cooling fan kicking in
Full Symptom description: 2 weeks ago, I was stuck in slow-going traffic. All of the sudden, I found the engine temperature gauge was pointing at the redline, which had never happened before! Then I was about to make an emergency stop on the shoulder, the gauge was falling back to the midline within 30 seconds. As I kept driving in the traffic, the gauge just fluctuated between mid-high to redline. There was a moment I had to stop and shut the engine down, then 1 minute later I restarted the engine, the gauge turned normal again: a little bit under the midline. Then the traffic improved, and the gauge stayed calm all the way home.
Then I noticed that the overheat problem only happens on slow-going/stop traffic; in another word, when I am driving down the interstate @60 mph, engine temperature is always perfect. (a little bit under the midline) At the parking lot, I triggered the problem to re-occur by idling while I was watching the cooling fan--and I found the fan didn't kick in until gauge hit mid-high. After fan kicked in, the gauge fell back to midline, but seemed never to the perfect status. (a little bit under the midline).
Differential: Coolant quality and quantity are good; no visible leak on radiator/hose; when I started a cold engine in the morning and turned on A/C at the same time, the fan kicked in immediately. And it seems that keeping A/C on can prevent overheat from happening, even in slow-going traffic.
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I have a 2005 mk4 gli and the other morning I went out to start my car for work and all I got was crank no start. I then realized my fuel pump wasn't priming when I opened the driver door. After work I came back and checked the fuel pump fuse and swapped the relay with another I had, still nothing. A buddy of mine decided to check the connector at the fuel pump for power, using a power probe I believe he hit all or the majority of the wires with 12v of negative and/or positive power. He then unplugged the connecter and plugged it back in and the car fired right up. But I noticed that my fuel gauge, engine temp gauge, and outside air temp readout were all not functioning. I've searched and searched without being able to narrow down a solution.
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This weekend I was one a trip in my '98 Civic, and I noticed some movement in my temperature gauge. It didn't really overheat; the needle never got near the red, but it did go a little higher than usual.
Normally, once the engine heats up, the needle on the temperature gauge doesn't move, not even a little. It sits right under the squiggly lines on the temperature gauge icon. However, on Friday, when I got off the highway, the needle rose into the upper part of the icon, to the part with the thermometer.
As soon as the car started moving, the needle on the temperature gauge went back to its normal spot, so I assumed it was a problem with the radiator fan and I kept on driving, prepared to turn on the heat if the needle on the temperature gauge started going up.
Saturday morning I took the car to a local shop in Jacksonville, and it turns out the engine needed a new fan and a new thermostat.
The first lesson that comes to mind is that keeping an eye on my temp gauge might have saved me an engine. It certainly saved me a head gasket. Since a head gasket or new engine would have been worth more than the car, catching this before it became a problem saved me from having to buy another car.
The next lesson is that my Civic had two things wrong with the cooling system, and yet it barely showed any symptoms. The air conditioner doesn't work I guess since a working A/C would probably have made it overheat. In any case, I've probably been driving without a working radiator fan for some time.
The final lesson is that if I had tried to diagnose this myself, I'd probably be driving around with a new radiator fan and a bad thermostat. I paid about $435 for a new fan, thermostat, and fresh coolant (I declined the cooling system flush) and it was worth every penny.
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Car is a 2012 GTI 6MT with APR intake.
Within the last couple of days, my engine temperature gauge has been acting a little strange. The needle will fluctuate depending on if I'm accelerating or at speed. I've actually seen it go down several times before going back up to normal temp. On a couple of days, it will go up to about halfway to normal temp, and just stay there for a lot longer than it usually seems to.
There have also been times when the car is at normal operating temp, I'll go into a store for maybe 15 minutes, and when I come out, it shows the engine temperature is maybe halfway to where it should be. Then it will go back to normal after a few minutes of driving. I would think that if the engine is warm, it should stay there for more than 15 minutes, even if the car isn't on.
We haven't had any abnormally cold days lately, and I'm not getting any CEL, but I was wondering if anything to worry about, or if it's normal.
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I have 2002 Camry 2.4L (2AZ-FE Engine) Japan built. Lately, I noted the temperature gauge stay at the 4th mark when engine fully warm up (first mark is at bottom and slightly longer than the next few marks), is this normal? Which mark it is at when fully warm up.
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