RE: Blinking water LED (and H2O gauge)

[trnsfrma@ix.netcom.com (Shawn C. Meze)]

At 11:52 AM 3/4/97 -0800, you wrote:
>
>Speaking of temperature gauge worries, is it normal for the stock 
>temperature gauge to almost be pegged (but no LED on) when stuck in 
>traffic after driving for a while at highway speed?  Mine does this 
>(an '88), and my other Scirocco ('86) does it too.  I've heard that 
>these cars are just prone to run hot, but I'd like to hear from other 
>people about this too.
>
>Thanks
>
>Tim


Its been my experience that the temp gauge on the dash runs right below the 
LED (@180 degrees) and in traffic, run a little above it (@200 degrees). Id 
say your cooling system is showing signs of needing some attention, b
ut not something to fret over. 
For whatever reason, the fan is not able to cool the coolant for you around 
town. I had a bad fan motor and after throwing in a used motor from a 79 
rabbit, temps returned to normal. your problem may be one of needing a s
ystem flush, bad temp sender, low coolant level or even just a simple 
thermostat replacement. 
If your unsure how old the thermostat is, its safe to replace it to emiminate 
that as a possible suspect fault. 
Then again, it could be that your car just runs at these temps. Its within 
spec on the guage, right? 

I dont care what anybody says about our motors needing to run hot to perform. 
Thats only for the emmissions testing reasons, the fuel burns cleaner when the 
engine is hot. As far as performance, I think the heat hurts the motor. 
Period. I dont buy into that hotter engine concept. I like mine to run around 
180-200. To me, that is optimum for about any motor.



Shawn
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