[Wayne L]

I have just purchased a new Touareg V6 180. Done 4000km now. I recently towed our van which is not big 15' to South Australia, it was a warm day 37 degrees plus. I noticed the temperature gauge that always sat at 90 degrees continually fluctuated between 90 and 105 (still in the normal range but at the high end). I have never even experienced this with my other tow vehicles. I was towing at 100kph. The car was fantastic and did the job with ease, but I have a question re the temp gauge movement. Is this normal? Have other owners who tow experienced this. The manual does say the vehicles operating temp will be effected by outside ambient temperatures. Advice from the technical people at the VW dealership say this is normal, but as I have said I have not owned a vehicle that has had the temp gauge continually go up and down like this? I would appreciate feedback from others who may have experienced this. As I purchased the Touareg primarily for a tow vehicle and will probably being towing when the ambient temperature will be 35 plus often, I would like some assurance all is ok?

 

[Coight57]

I have just purchased a new Touareg V6 180. Done 4000km now. I recently towed our van which is not big 15' to South Australia, it was a warm day 37 degrees plus. I noticed the temperature gauge that always sat at 90 degrees continually fluctuated between 90 and 105 (still in the normal range but at the high end).

From my experience to date, my Touareg (2014 V6 180) has never moved from 90 on the temp gauge. And that's towing (1.4 tonne) in similar temperatures throughout the centre of Australia... Simpson Desert, Flinders, Darling etc. Cheers Paul.

 

[Beefgravy]

My Set up is around 2.5T and has never moved from 90. However we dont see too many 37 degree days in Taz.

 

[GazzaK]

We have a 2013 V6 180 TDI and have towed our 3.4 T caravan 10,000 Km so far. Temp gauge seems to stay pretty constant at 90, although on the long climb up through the Blue Mountains west of Sydney it does increase to perhaps 95. Perhaps have a look at the cooling fan behind the radiator to see what size the fan is? I believe all Tregs sold in Oz have a larger capacity fan. I forget the size offhand but will check mine tomorrow. Perhaps yours was incorrectly fitted with the smaller fan? It's a bugger to see the sticker on the fan, but if you stretch over the radiator with a camera and reach right down, you can snap a pick of the sticker.

 

[GazzaK]

Don't you hate it when the little light bulb in your head goes off as you're drifting off to sleep. The radiator cooling fan on my Treg is 850 Watts as is all Tregs sold in Oz to the best of my knowledge. The smaller cooling fan (standard in the UK I believe) is 600 Watts.

 

[Black Grouse]

Don't you hate it when the little light bulb in your head goes off as you're drifting off to sleep. The radiator cooling fan on my Treg is 850 Watts as is all Tregs sold in Oz to the best of my knowledge. The smaller cooling fan (standard in the UK I believe) is 600 Watts.

That's correct - UK Touaregs get the 600w fan UNLESS they're ordered from new with the factory-fit towbar in which case an uprated fan of 850w is fitted.

 

[Chainsaw]

The V6 TDI has a cooler for the Turbocharger which operates thru the cooling system. During higher loads (eg towing vans uphill) the turbo temp goes up, a valve opens and allows coolant to pass thru the Turbo cooler, hence this hotter coolant is dumped in with the engine coolant and you will notice the changes on the temp guage. This can happen when towing with cruise control on. If temp goes up take it out of cruise control or change down a gear. Trucks actually have a temp guage to read turbo temps and when it creeps up they will change down a gear. Hope this explanation helps.

 

[Wayne L]

Thank you for this great feedback, it explains everything, it's a shame that all the VW Technical Advice service people I have spoken to at VW Australia and at a number of dealerships could not have provided such a response apart from (thats unusual, but as long as it stays within the designated temp zone don't worry about it!! and we've tested the temp guage and all seems ok!!). The vehicle has done 15000 km now and is great. I've just towed the van from Geelong to Noosa and return and it did the job easily. The temp guage sat at 90 most of the time but did go up to close to 100 when the vehicle was under load going over some of the sharp rises you encounter on a drive up the Hume and Pacific Hwys, the temperature dropped as the vehicle kicked back and settled around 90. As I said the car is great, just a shame it doesn't have a full size spare, as we are looking to do the big loop early next year, think I will buy one and have it fixed to the van. Thank you for your explanation and feedback, you have put me at ease.

 

[rpjg]

[QUOTE fluctuated between 90 and 105 [/QUOTE]


Indicates a sticking thermostat.
Temperature indication, although using an analogue gauge, is from ECU's digital data that has been processed to give smooth non-fluctuating 90, if all is normal, either towing, high ambient temperatures/ loads.
Any change from the indicated 90 normal, higher or lower indicates a problem., i.e. slow acting thermostat or other.
Any fault codes on VCDS ?


Regards

 

[Crewie]

I have just purchased a new Touareg V6 180. Done 4000km now. I recently towed our van which is not big 15' to South Australia, it was a warm day 37 degrees plus. I noticed the temperature gauge that always sat at 90 degrees continually fluctuated between 90 and 105 (still in the normal range but at the high end). I have never even experienced this with my other tow vehicles. I was towing at 100kph. The car was fantastic and did the job with ease, but I have a question re the temp gauge movement. Is this normal? Have other owners who tow experienced this. The manual does say the vehicles operating temp will be effected by outside ambient temperatures. Advice from the technical people at the VW dealership say this is normal, but as I have said I have not owned a vehicle that has had the temp gauge continually go up and down like this? I would appreciate feedback from others who may have experienced this. As I purchased the Touareg primarily for a tow vehicle and will probably being towing when the ambient temperature will be 35 plus often, I would like some assurance all is ok?

I recently towed my 3 tonne van up the Toowoomba Range( 10 in 1 gradient) and just as I reached the Top of the climb I did notice that my Temperature gauge did fluctuate from 90 up to 105 but then came back. The Car pulled up the range no problem just the flick on the Temperature guage which I thought to was odd. So I to would be interested in any feed back

 

[Black Grouse]

I use a ScanGauge II, plugged into the EOBD port, which reads the digital temperature as seen by the ECU - during the warm up phase the analogue gauge reaches 90C (and remains constant) when the digital gauge is at 60C - the digital gauge continues increasing up to about 90 but can vary a little according to load.

On a previous non-VW, which eventually blew it's head gasket, the analogue gauge was steady at 85C (that car's "norm") until the digital gauge went through 115C when the analogue gauge shot up to MAX and the engine blew while I was trying to stop - so IMO a "smoothed" analogue gauge is totally useless.

 

[Flash635]

Have a look at this stuff.

Never used it myself nor know anyone who has.

 

[Black Grouse]

Have a look at this stuff.

Never used it myself nor know anyone who has.

Ordinary coolant copes with normal temperatures - I doubt anything copes with abnormal ones!

 

[Flash635]

Ordinary coolant copes with normal temperatures - I doubt anything copes with abnormal ones!

Don't know, never used it.

I've used other means to cope with temperatures in extreme conditions such as fitting a V8 radiator where the 6 cylinder one goes or using a tube and plate if that's not available.

Don't need anything extra in the Explorer, the radiator is way over sized and it comes with an oil, trans and power steering cooler.

Did you read through the link?
That say the product has heat transfer properties superior to water and regular coolant and has a 2 year satisfaction guarantee.

I do know for a fact that you can get better heat transfer from materials other than water and water based coolants, whether this stuff does I don't know.

 

[Black Grouse]

I have read the websites for waterless coolants - I don't doubt they have higher heat transfer rates than conventional coolants, very useful for competition cars and aircraft where drag can be reduced by reducing radiator and heat exchanger sizes.

With conventional car coolants, an additive strength of 20-25% gives the best transfer rate so should be the aim in hot climates - but in cold climates, the anti-freeze properties are more important so the strength should be 50+% there.
Coolant Mix and Overheating.

 

[Flash635]

I have read the websites for waterless coolants - I don't doubt they have higher heat transfer rates than conventional coolants, very useful for competition cars and aircraft where drag can be reduced by reducing radiator and heat exchanger sizes.

With conventional car coolants, an additive strength of 20-25% gives the best transfer rate so should be the aim in hot climates - but in cold climates, the anti-freeze properties are more important so the strength should be 50+% there.
Coolant Mix and Overheating.

I just thought that if it gave maybe 5% ~ 10% improvement that would be all he needs.
Actually, he probably doesn't really need anything extra.

He doesn't say where he lives, there are aren't all that many places in Australia that need a lot of anti freeze nor for much of the year.

 

[rpjg]

I have just purchased a new Touareg V6 180. Done 4000km now. I recently towed our van which is not big 15' to South Australia, it was a warm day 37 degrees plus. I noticed the temperature gauge that always sat at 90 degrees continually fluctuated between 90 and 105 (still in the normal range but at the high end). I have never even experienced this with my other tow vehicles. I was towing at 100kph. The car was fantastic and did the job with ease, but I have a question re the temp gauge movement. Is this normal? Have other owners who tow experienced this. The manual does say the vehicles operating temp will be effected by outside ambient temperatures. Advice from the technical people at the VW dealership say this is normal, but as I have said I have not owned a vehicle that has had the temp gauge continually go up and down like this? I would appreciate feedback from others who may have experienced this. As I purchased the Touareg primarily for a tow vehicle and will probably being towing when the ambient temperature will be 35 plus often, I would like some assurance all is ok?

RE : "continually fluctuated between 90 and 105 "


Temperature of cylinder heads are regulated to 90 and cylinder block coolant circuit to 105, (REF:3-0L-V6-TDI-Engine Self Study:Engine Mechanics). A ball valve is actuated by the cylinder head coolant valve N489, to help system warm up. May be, this valve is activating intermittently, allowing the hotter 105 water, from the block, into the heads coolant circuit and the temperature sensor that feeds the dash gauge, causing it to indicate 105 intermittently.


Regards

 

[Bilby-2007]

Hi Wayne L,
Glad to read your post because I have just noticed my 2012 Tdi doing the same thing, and I was starting to think I had a problem. I towed my previous van ( ~2400 kg) on a number of long trips up and down the east coast of Oz, and the temp guage never moved off 90^C. Now we are halfway through a lap of the island (Exmouth WA), this time with a heavier van (~2800 kg), and on a couple of warm days (~30^C), I noticed the temp guage would suddenly move up to ~95^C or even close to 100^C as I was climbing a gradual incline. Then after a short time (< 1 min), the guage would drop quite quickly back to 90^C. To my way of thinking, these would be the symptoms exactly as described by Chainsaw. On a normal car ( a Treg is definitely NOT a normal car), one could see the temp guage rise on a long climb, but it would not go down again until one reached the end of the climb and started to go down the other side. My Treg guage would fall quickly back to 90^C, even though I was still going up the incline.

Also, I agree with your spare wheel issue. I have done the same thing as you, I have a full sized spare mounted on the rear bumper of the van. A real PITA on such fantastic tow vehicle, but who is brave enough to go a long way from home, towing a van, without a full sized spare???

Regards