AndySut

Hi. I've now actually read the water pump thread!! I'd only scanned it. Apologies. Seeing as many people are describing exactly the same scenario... I'm taking a wild guess that that may be the problem!! Thanks for the replies.

I wondered about that. But it seems to 2.0 and to have been resolved by 2016? Thanks. A

Hi. I'm in France with a Skoda Octavia estate, 1.6 diesel, 2016. Edition model. 113,000km. Great car. Here's the 'problem' timeline. About a year ago the air con sort of went a bit rubbish. Wouldn't get 'really' cold. Then about four months ago I noticed it didn't really heat the car efficiently either. At a service asked for it to be checked out and the conclusion was the car's entire radiator/cooling system was gone and needed fixing immediately (at circa. €2,500). Because the engine was about to overheat and blow-up (sorry for all these technical terms!!!). I had my doubts, simplistically because the engine's temperature gauge never once moved above normal. And no warning lights. Any way yesterday, the car's temp gauge, after about 30 mins of driving on rural roads (so 70kmh max) suddenly climbed into the red, and the red overheating light came on with the dire warning to stop immediately. So something is wrong. But here's what I don't understand (!), the minute we stopped the gauge immediately returned to 'normal' in the space of a few seconds (not minutes). So I drove home, watching the gauge. It essentially sits at normal, put some load (accelerate, etc) on the engine and sure it starts to climb quite quickly, but the second you slow down or stop at traffic lights, etc. It immediately just goes to normal. I get there's a problem. But I sort of don't understand why a grossly overheated engine would return to a normal temperature instantly? And when you open the bonnet, the engine is simply not hot, not close. If you stop and leave the engine running the cooling fan is one. When you tyrn off the engine it stops immediately. Even though the gauge says the engine is overheating... help! Totally clueless about cars... Thanks