Genuine SEAT Parts and Accessories.

High temperature fluctuation

fauldzy

Guest
I have a 2003 Leon Cupra (180bhp). Today as I was driving home I hit a major traffic jam and I was mostly idling/start stop for an hour. After about 50 minutes I noticed the engine running slightly rougher than usual. I looked at my temp gauge to discover the needle was just under 105 degrees and slowly dropping, until it got back to the regular half way position of 90 degrees.

I panicked as I had never seen the temp gauge read anything over 90 degrees in the 3 years I have owned the car, not even during the hot summer on long journeys!

No more than 5 minutes later and the needle was starting to creep back up again to 105, upon where it stayed briefly before dropping back down to 90 degrees. This all happened during the traffic jam and thankfully I was coming up to the bottleneck. Once freed up and on my way, for the remaining 5-10 minutes of my journey, the needle stayed at 90.

Coolant level is at the appropriate level, so no leaks. The car is serviced at recommended intervals with the dealer. Cam belt along with water pump was replaced earlier this year at dealers. Coolant sensor was also replaced with the 'improved' green variant a couple of months ago. This was after the original produced an EML and vagcom then flagged it up as faulty.

So is this temperature reading considered 'normal' or something to worry about? The Owner's manual does state this as a 'normal' temperature, but 'when the engine is working hard and ambient temperature is high' neither of which was true in my case.

The only other theory I have is that the car was not moving enough for an extended period of time, to encourage regular airflow through the rad.

Anyone shed some light please? I just want to know if I am going to break down anytime soon, or I am simply worrying over nothing!
 
if its a dry night, keep an eye on the ground under the car in the morning, could be the rad, you may not notice the coolant dropping straight away, when mine was shot the temp gradually creeped up now and again and coolant only dropped really once, twice a week at most, only guess the rad when i saw the damp patch at the very front of the car
 
Rocky Rocastle said:
if its a dry night, keep an eye on the ground under the car in the morning, could be the rad, you may not notice the coolant dropping straight away, when mine was shot the temp gradually creeped up now and again and coolant only dropped really once, twice a week at most, only guess the rad when i saw the damp patch at the very front of the car
Click to expand...


Thanks for that! A friend of mine has suggested that I inspect the rad fins too! The finger is currently pointing at one thing.... I hope it's nothing though!
 
It is something that needs checking out. when stationary / slow moving the fans kick in to maintain 90 degrees. one of your fans isnt working.

Check their fuses which live ontop of the battery, the holder is known to melt.

Be careful if having a nose, If a fan or connection is faulty the fans could suddenly start spinning.
 
I drove the car to work again today. The car was running for about half hour with some motorway driving temperature needle behaved. Drove an alternative route home that took around 40 minutes, with a little slow moving traffic for about ten minutes. Again the needle behaved.

When I got home I left the car running until both the fans kicked in, so they seem ok. A brief rad inspection has given me nothing to worry about as far as the fins go.

That leaves the possibility of a very small leak somewhere, or coolant block? Also, perhaps the fans are not kicking in soon enough? I have heard that a faulty thermostat would usually stay 'open' and lead to an over-cooled engine. Could it be possible it's staying 'closed' for too long instead? Perhaps I need to do the traffic test again? I will keep an eye on the temp needle, along with coolant levels. Everything appears to be fine today, if anything changes i'll be sure to pop back on here.

Thank-you so much for your advice. Let's hope it was just a one off.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back