My mk3 Vr6 never seems to warm up, the temp gauge will sit at 70 then after sitting at idle for a while it will raise to 90 (never higher) once i get going agin the cool air flow seems to drop it back to around 70. I asked a vw specialist to check the thermostat they said it was fine. Can anyone help?
Sounds like the thermostat to me. I replaced the one on my Corrado for the same reason. If you decide to replace it make sure you get new seals for the 'stat(O ring), pipe to the water pump (2 O rings) and 'stat housing. I was advised to replace the 'stat housing also but mine was fine when I removed it. Still replaced it though. It is a fiddly job made much easier if you have a 5mm ball ended allen key but can be done in an hour or so. Hope that helps.
sounds to me like you have a neuspeed thermostat, thats what mine does, it opens earlier to keep the coolent cooler
it is an early car isnt it? All easy mk3's show a true reading, The newer ones seem to go to 90and stay there, For eg, my 1.9td that i used to have used to do what you say, then i got a late set of clocks and it always sat at 90!
when my thermostat had gone the needle rarely got out of the white section of the gauge, if sat in traffic would creep slowly to the edge of the white section but then when moving would drop straight back down to the cold position, also oil temp would never get over 80 degrees... yours does sound about right mine sits just over 70+ when moving but up to 90+ in traffic hope this helps, rob,
