Kevin Bacon 5 Posted March 25, 2009 My engine sits perfectly on 90 when in motion and when cruising at 80mph in 5th oil temp is 116 which is about the same as before. However when stuck in traffic I'm getting no fan action at 95 degrees at all as Mr Pianowire states should be happening, and a mental 15 second burst at 105 degrees which then cuts out. The engine doesn't get any hotter than 105 but being a concerned parent I timed the fan and it was 15 seconds every time with a couple of minutes between blasts, if that's significant? 116 oil temp is a tad warm imo. When I got mine 6 years ago, and bog standard, the oil used to be that at 80mph too. Coming from a MK2 GTI background, that was unacceptable :D So on went a Mocal oil cooler and it dropped immediately to 98 deg, which is more like it. Heat is the number 1 killer of VR6s and every little bit of cooling helps prolong it's life. VW undersized the water / oil heat exchanger for the 12V VR6 imo. The 2.8 and 3.2 24V ones are MUCH bigger and much more effective. No fan action at 95 degrees indicates stage 1 has gone in the radiator's thermoswitch. I would replace the sensor in the first instance as it's not expensive. So is this likely to be a loose/disconnected wire, as the fan is clearly still being triggered by coolant temperature? The old girl needs to go in to get the bearings replaced and I want to get this issue sorted, and I intend to go in with as much info for the grease monkeys to work off as possible. The fan is being triggered by stage 2 if it's coming on at 105 deg, which is part of the same sender as Stage 1. Get the monkeys of grease to replace the sender first. If that doesn't work, check the wiring. if that doesn't work, it could be the main controller box that's attached to the turret in front of the coolant tank. Unlikely to be the latter in the case of stage 1 though, which is a good job as it's a £100 part! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fla 9 Posted March 27, 2009 Just for reference, my water temp very rarely goes above 90, perhaps around 95 in town with the aircon on. Oil temps at different speeds, 'on the autobahn' 70mph - oil 92 80 mph- oil 94-96 90 mph- oil 96-98 100 mph- oil 100-102 110mph - oil 104-106 120mph - oil 106-110 130 mph - oil 110-112 In town in summer oil max 114-116 in traffic and going over speedbumps etc, which comes down to about 108 once we are back up to 30mph or so. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davidwort 0 Posted March 27, 2009 I seem to remember the VR6 engine being delayed in development because of overheating issues, having 6 cylinders so close in the same head and block I'd say an oil cooler is a very worthwhile investment. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
