VR6 Cooling questions (Major Breakthrough - Last Page )

[double-6s 0]

Yeah good thanks mate. All good.

 

And yeah I've still got the splitter on the drive mate.

[Goldie 2]

Ill give you a ring tomorrow, any objections to a visitor at some point tomorrow or Saturday??

[double-6s 0]

No objections at all matey.

 

Tomorrow probably better as the kids will be here on saturday. I think i'll be in all day after about one tomorrow. Feel free to pop over whenever mate :)

[Goldie 2]

Yeah the afternoons good for me, ill give you a ring after 1 then, nice one..

[double-6s 0]

Sweetness. See ya tomorrow fella.

[trudubrstu 0]

really interested in the outcome of this - mines doing exactly the same thing :roll:

[Goldie 2]

That why i thought id put all this up as it seems to always be the same probs with VR cooling and no definite answers given...

 

Are you getting the fans or have you got the Stat problem or have you won th star prize like me and got both??

[trudubrstu 0]

hi goldie

 

well mine warms to 100 degrees in about five odd minutes, and sits there, never really moving up/down much at all - both fans come in at 110, i think, - haven't heard/seen the single fan on its own yet!

 

looking through the history, car seems to have had a lot of cooling issues throughout the last five yrs (culminating in a head rebuild before i bought it last yr) - it has a recent radiator ans stat (2 odd yrs ago)

 

noticed that g.s.f. stock a vr6 stat with "80 degrees" in the description - gonna get one next week and see if that makes a difference at all - radiator is warm all round though, so it's not a blockage there...hmmm...will let u all know the outcome, 100 degrees all the time is WAY to high methinks - glad i'm only doing short journeys at the 'mo!

[Goldie 2]

You should be getting a fan earlier than 100 degrees...

 

Try disconnencting the lead going to the thermoswitch in the radiator and bridging the connections, fan should start automatically (mine dont). The fan are belt driven together, i believe you should get speed 1 at about 92 degrees, speed 2 at 102 degrees and the meergency kicks in at 110.

 

If your car is running at 100 degrees then your stat is nt openning far enough (yet again like mine). Does it cool down on the motorway or stay at 100 degrees??

[ziderapple 0]

70ºC Thermostat. Optimises water temperature for maximum power output. Used extensively in competition engines. A simple solution to those power-sapping engine-bay temperatures that accompany the standard factory set-up. Every VR6 should have one!

£15.00

 

http://dubpower.co.uk/VR6%20parts.HTM

[Goldie 2]

Any one using one of these and are they worth having??

[trudubrstu 0]

think i'll be giving dubpower a call this week for one of those 'stats....some nice products on that site

[Goldie 2]

I know that awesomegti do a one as well....

 

Ill either be going with a low temp one or putting my old one back in..

[trudubrstu 0]

i bought a mk4 1.8t low temp apr sourced (i think) stat from awesome for my mk1 gti a few yrs back - i'll check their site, give them a bell tomorrow and let u know

[Goldie 2]

Sweet, we will get there in the end...Hopefully...

[DanVW 0]

Just as an update to the "VW thermostat" issue I swapped out my old thermostat a few weeks ago and replaced with a brand new one from VW topped up with G12+ and took her out for a rag with Toad

 

She warmed up very quickly and was at 114 (oil) and 110 (water) when we got back, anyway after a coffee I drove back home probably about 8 miles down the M3 free moving traffic and doing 70ish trying to get the temps back down problem was the temps kept going up! And soon I had 122 (oil) and 113ish (water) :shock:

 

At this point I was 5h1ting myself as my car needs no excuse to break down and I kept waiting for either the matrix or a coolant pipe to burst! Anyway I got home with the oil pressure warning buzzer bleeping and let it cool down before taking out the new stat and throwing it in a pan of boiling water with my old stat see below:

 

 

 

As you will see from the pic the new stat doesn't open far enough to close off the top hole in the water pump therefore its easier for the water to continue around the block rather than be pulled through the rad! Also the new stat has a smaller opening than my old stat (no pic unfortunately) and on top of that it opened very slowly!

 

This is why mine was overheating and trying to cook my head!! As you can imagine I was most annoyed and marched back to VW to see if it would work any better when inserted in a VW parts monkey! :censored:

 

Anyway they gave me another new stat and I took it home to test again with my old stat, surprise surprise it was exactly the same as the previous one! And not wanting to waste any more time I slapped the old stat back in and topped up with my (now recycled) G12+ and I have not had a problem with over heating since.

 

I have noticed that it does take ages to get get up to 80 on the oil but I think this is because my old stat doesn't quite close properly and so there is always a little movement through the rad, so in conclusion I don't know if VW are now handing out stats designed to go in a new car (sharan/polo/golf/lupo)

and they don't need to open up so far or have as big opening as the old ones?

 

Or if there is just a dodgy batch of stats being handed out however I will NOT be putting a new VW stat in my pride and joy ever again! Think its going to be after market jobs from now on.

 

Sorry for the length of this post but I wanted to get this onto the forum as I have seen lots of posts about same issue, and wanted to make people aware of what I found + avoid people having to spend days under their car's taking that f*&£1n6 power steering bracket on and off over and over!

 

Cheers

 

Dan

[Goldie 2]

Been to the dealers today and have purchased the seals for the thermostat housing, G12 and have sourced a thermostat which opens a bit earlier... Hope this bring my temp down......

 

Fingers crossed for tomorrow when it gets fitted.....

 

Still no progress on the fans...

[gruvenVR6corrado 0]

I didnt read all this, but have chased down just about every single problem coolant related in Corrado VR6.

 

1. Jump the thermo switch. The car ABSOLUTELY will not cool unless you can get all 3 speeds on fans to work properly. If they wont, figure that out. If when you jump the tswitch you cannot get speeds 1 and 2 (key on!), jump fan directly. MAKE SURE ALL 3 SPEEDS WORK.

 

2. If wiring is screwed, check under battery for a break. No need to rewire the whole thing, just repl whats broken.

 

3. Feel the rad hoses - both should be SCALDING HOT at these temps. If not, suspect thermostat - for the hell of it, remove it alltogether and see if that makes any difference. Run straight h20 for this test.

 

4. If all the fans work and hoses are both hot, and it still overheats, you gotta do a pressure test. hook up pressure bottle (tee it into the overflow hose) and see if you can hold 15psi (NO MORE!). Do the unthinkable, and look closely at the serp belt side of engine where head meets block - look for the tell tale sign of coolant pushing out over there - its where most VR6 blow the HG. Also, ensure the res cap is sealing properly. If system wont maintain 15psi, it will overheat.

 

Corrado runs very hot, all components must be working correctly, and they all interact.

 

Let me know answers to these questions. I will help until you are at 100C !

[Goldie 2]

From what you have listed above my symptoms are:

 

One fan only at 110 degrees. Jumped the thermoswitch and got nothing.

 

All hoses are hot..

 

Thermostat replaced not so long ago and runs hotter than ever so going to a different thermostat tomorrow...

[trudubrstu 0]

danvw/gruven - great info guys - got my mechanic looking into probs this coming friday (got a new stat- NOT FROM VW!!, seal,housings)

 

.....little question about the colant fluid - g12+? handbook says g11?! is g12+ a later revision from g11? or is the g12+ vr6 specific? little confused, as my vr has blue coolant, not pink, and the head was rebuilt last july by a local specialist who has good corrado experience, so i'm a little surprised that he would put g11 in if g12+ is the right stuff....could this be part of the reason i'm seeing 100 degrees steady temp when she's warm? hmmmm......

 

......and i noticed a post on here earlier in the week - a fella said g12+ was essential due to properties in it that prevent hardening of coolant pipes? anyone clear this up?

 

cheers!

[Toad 0]

g12+ is the latest version of VW's branded antifreeze, and is a replacement for g11 and g12.

 

Personally I think that it's a load of rubbish. Antifreeze is antifreeze is antifreeze. I put some generic antifreeze in mine and it's been fine.

[dr_mat 0]

Handbook was written in 1993. There's no such thing as G11 any more.

[trudubrstu 0]

"vwspares.co.uk" list g11 (febi brand) and that's what i've bought this week from them.......but as per Toads comment...antifreeze is antifreeze in my book too

[dr_mat 0]

Well that's odd, why would they keep making it? Anyway, the handbooks *are* out of date.

 

For a bit of history VW replaced G11 with G12, but found that due to it's different make-up when mixed the two *can* cause blockages in waterways, so they reformulated to G12+ which is mixable with either the other two.

 

Or so I'm told ..

[Supercharged 2]

It's the anti-corrosion properties they improved in G12+, I have a datasheet somewhere... It's cheap as chips from VW / German and Jewish so I'd buy the proper stuff...