water temp gage crazyness on 88' 16v

[calimus@techography.net (calimus)]

Was coming back from a car show yesterday, got about 15~20 miles down the
highway, glanced at the water temp and noticed it was way high.  Quick check
of the oil temp and it was fine at about 100c.  Pulled into a weigh station
and started checking things.  Car was running fine, cooling fan came on
about 5min after sitting still while running, went off, came back on after
another 5min as it should.  However, the water temp gage still read almost
redline.  Thought maybe something happened with the temp gage sender so I
went to check the connection and the male spade connector snapped right off.

Since I was in such a great mood at that point and had fellow lister Josh
Hignight with me we both said screw it and drove on to see if the head would
blow or whatever.  Made it the 50 miles back home with no issues.  Went
today to local autozone to pick up some things to do a fuel tank swap on
Josh's car (swap appears to have gone well, will know more when Josh e-mails
me when he makes it back home in Fla) and asked for a new temp sender as
well.  The one they gave me uses a nail head type connector rather then a
spade style but I figured maybe times have changed and VW or whoever got
tired of the spade types breaking.  Got home, swapped the gas tank, then
swaped the temp sending unite in m car.  Change the connector on the wire
since I accidently cut it while trying to crack the housing around the stock
connector.  But everything back together and within 10min of the car
running, temp gage reading same as before while the oil temps at this point
are only around 85~90c.  WTF gives?  Is the correct replacement temp sending
unite?  Or do I need to find the kind that uses the spade connector style?
Also, could it just be the temp gage wigging out?

Oil temps stay at normal level under harsh, normal or dead stopped driving.
I'm concerned cause I really don't want to have to do headwork on the car as
it's my daily driver so I'm very open to suggestions and ideas.  New grounds
were recently added and old ones replaced so it's not a normal grounding
issue from the engine bay.  Aside from that everything is stock vintage
1988.  Just incase anyone missed the subject, this is on my 88' 16v rocco.
Help?


William Snyder

88' Scirocco 16v
89' Cabriolet 8v
71' Karmann Ghia

Web Page: http://www.techography.net:82/scirocco