Re: Temperature Questions

[T Berk <tberk@mindspring.com>]

dave t wrote:
> 
> my 88 16v has been running over half on the water temp and around 100
> celcius on the oil temp. i've been reading about drilling a "relief hole" in
> the thermostat. Has anyone done this and can verify the benefits of this
> procedure?
> 
> I also have a problem w/ my ventilation. Even though my heater is turned all
> the way off, it feels as though the air that's going thru the vents is
> coming straight from the engine bay instead of cool outside air. what should
> i be looking at?
> 
> dave


1. Don't worry, your car is running at a good temp. If you don't get up
to at least 100c then you run the risk of not 'boiling off' certain
volatiles in the oil as well nor the normal condensation which means you
accumulate H2O in the lubricant. (Not good). A nominal running temp
(oil) of 120c is fine & half way or just over the LED is consider normal
for the water temp gauge.

2. Sounds as if the valve connected to the heater controls doesn't close
all the way. Common on high mileage VWs, (later models had the heater
always 'live' and controlled heat with a flap allowing air to pass the
heater coil or not). Check in the engine bay with the heater set to Full
Cold, then peek at said valve (can't miss it, it's inline with the
heater hoses as they disappear in to the firewall). If you can still
manually close it some more then you may just have an adjustment
problem, if it's closed and you are sill getting a trickle of hot
coolant through it then it's time for a replacement. 

Mike or Mark can hook you up with a new one (Can't be too expensive) or
I just pulled a later one from the wrecking yard. After I pulled the
replacement off I could see it was OK by closing it and trying to blow
air through it- you can tell between a good and bad one that way. 

If on the other hand your car is a late model and/or has A/C like my RIP
84 GTI then the flap system is what keeps the hot air in or out and you
need to investigate the vacuum system that works those flaps as well as
the little 'arms' that actuate them.

hth,
TBerk

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