Car running to cold

[Rick_1138 0]

I have noticed that my car tends to run awfully cold, i.e. the thermostat sits at just above the white block at the bottom of the gauge.

I still get hot air through the vents etc ona cold day, and the car doesn't overheat, if i am stuck in traffic the car temp goes up to the middle of the gauge and the fans come on fine.

However as the car is having misfire\rough running issues, i was wondering if there could be something wrong with the temp sensor rather than a stuck open thermostat.

I wonder if a fecked temp sensor will show up on Vag Com.

Has anyone had probs with a low temp reading before, and if such a situation may be affecting my MPG as i seem to be going through more than usual! especially as fuel price has dropped i should be going longer between stops, not less.

[Dave Lea 4]

mine did this and it was a stuck open stat this made it over fuel and run bad

[craggsy 91]

mine did this and it was a stuck open stat this made it over fuel and run bad

our stat might of been wedged open by vomit tho Dave!!!!! :-p

[craggsy 91]

mine did this and it was a stuck open stat this made it over fuel and run bad

our stat might of been wedged open by vomit tho Dave!!!!! :-p

[Rick_1138 0]

will see about getting anew thermo sta from GSF.

However i have heard that its best to get new seal kit aswell.

Does anyone have part numbers from VW for temp housing seal kit.

I know there was a thread on here about a site in the states that sold a whole kit, incliding seals, the housing itself, crack pipe, clips etc for £50 bucks??

anyone know who that was.

[ip 0]

My car did this when I got it. Made it run badly (effectively like running the car with the chock on all the time) and the fuel economy was shocking. I went with a whole new thermostat housing since it was only and extra £15 and the old one was starting to crack.

All part number sare easily found on www.vagcat.com. You need to register as a member but it is free and doesn't seem to result in any spam.

Worth checking the temp sensors before replacing the stat (on my own car the blue temp sensor was also fritzed and this made matters even worse). Easy to test this once you have vag-com though. Simply use vag-com to read the temp (comes from blue temp sensor) and compare it to the reading on the dash dial (comes from yellow temp sensor). If they are within 10 degrees of each other then all is well.

ip

[Rick_1138 0]

i looked at that website, the only problem with it is that a lot of the numbers on the exploded parts diagram don't always correlate with the bar on the side telling you what the parts are.

does anyone know eher that site is that sells whole kits from the states for £50?

Update: Found the site! its MJM Autohaus

[ip 0]

The vagcat site should be okay. I used it to order the three plastic stat housing parts and all the required seals and bolts. The guy at the VW parts shop reckoned it is right 99% of the time.

The only tip with vagcat is to make sure you are reading the part number that refers to the correct description (the part number is written above the description).

The page you need is here:

http://www.vagcat.com/epc/cat/vw/GO/1995/159/49/1811374/

ip

[Rick_1138 0]

Right i got my VAG-Com, and it worked okay.

could only get baasic info as its a shareware version.

There were no fault codes detected.

But the ABS system got an error saying that too much communication was going on????

Anyway what i could tell was that tickover seemed low, as it was 680rpm.

The little baloons that open when you click on the info boxes (i.e. the rpm) said that no extra info was available, the vag com website shows that these contain the standard area where these setting should lie, i.e. O2 sensor should be between 1 and 1.5 etc.

This may be as i need to register, but registration process looked very convuluted.

As i am getting no error codes, i will look at ghetting a new coil pack and trying that, as its most likely issue.

oh well more expense next month.

[ip 0]

Tickover of 680rpm is almost perfect. These cars can tickover happily down to 650rpm!

Good news on the lack of fault codes. Not sure what the ABS sensor is telling you though.

I think coilpack sounds most likely at this point. The vag-com system on the mk3 was never fast enough to pick up miss fires so coilpack failures don't tend to show up.

ip

[Rick_1138 0]

well there is one on flea bay, new for £95 notes.

will look at it once i get paid on the 15th of November.

Fingers crossed.

Oh and i pick up my new project a week on friday, its a buzz box! a 1998 UK Honda Integra Type R!!

[ip 0]

£95 seems a bit much. Often one you get fairly new ones for around £40.

This guy often has them (though not today):

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/fircof1-Corrado-VR6-Spares_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ0QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Honda integra is a nice car and about as far removed from a VR6 as you can get. There's even an outside chance that it will run for more than a fortnight without breaking down!

ip

[Rick_1138 0]

most coil packs on ebay are around the £100 mark if they are new.

second hand ones are anything from £25 to £50, but they are less and less common, and a lot are in the states!

[ip 0]

The guy who runs the shop (that I sent you the link for) seems to dismantle VR6s for a living/hobby. If you can wait, send him an email asking him to let you know next time he has one. He hooked me up with a new belt tensioner this way. Nice guy and doesn't seem to sell tat.