Was driving to work today and after 10 km, in stop start traffic, the temperature warning light came on. Pulled over and let the water level come down. Was at a junction to the highway to work. Drove on for another 5 km and there was no probs.

Left early to avoid heavy traffic and drove frugally. Car was fine until I reached thick traffic around the corner from my house and he temperature started climbing.

Got out and opened the bonnet and found the fans were not turning (by the way my air conditioning stopped working since yesterday).

The VAG COM gave no error. Rang up the dealer who says water pump. Car is three years ld but done only 24000 km.

So is it the fan only or also the water pump or anything else?

Are you getting any heat out of the heater?, if so the coolant is circulating so unlikely to be the pump.

:+1: It would be most unusual for it to be the waterpump on 24_000km, and the places the car's heating sound wrong anyway. Water pumps usually show up in places you're running 90kph or faster, or over half engine speed for sustained climbs.

I checked all fuses and they were okay. wat fooled me is that my heater motor is shot so I could not use that as a point of reference

Decided to drive car in stages - i.e. went to one of my offices on the way. Stopped over for 2 hours, no problem, then drove on to dealer. Got stuck in major traffic and saw the needle climb. Switched off and started car to move on as required. Had to pull over near highway access ramp as it was going into the red. Raised bonnet and waited for 10 min.

Resumed on the highway at 80 km/h, needle went back to 90 and car was fine. As I got off the highway for the last couple of miles, the needle moved to the red but made it into the dealer.

It was quite clear that the fans were out

Got another supervisor, not the person I spoke to, and told him to fix the fans and air conditioning. It was a wiring fault. They topped up the gas (they had to charge me for something!).

Drove into office and I could hear a long lost hum!

Get the thermostat checked.

I had a problem in my first Octavia RS where the thermostat died causing the waterpump to die. I only had about 20k miles on the clock and just over 1 year old.

Thermostats sometimes jam open - they operate the fan when they close. if your water level is right this is most likely problem.

Look at the cheapest option first

Thermostats operate the fan when they close.

On what planet!!!? The fans are operated by a thermoswitch on the radiator, which means that they can only operate for cooling when the engine is hot and hence the thermostat is open! IME the "normal running temperature" of the engine is such that the thermostat should be open when the engien temperature gauge gets to its "normal hot" temperature.

On what planet!!!? The fans are operated by a thermoswitch on the radiator,

Seconded !!!!

Definatly sounds like a fan problem.It could be the relay box Controller for it. Air con is also linked through this.

On Friday, took the car out and drove for 15 miles around town on some heavy water-logged roads. Some roads were flooded with 5 inches of water but I drove gingerly. Was not using the air conditioner. Return home and pick up the missus for lunch who promptly switches the a/c on and nothing. Stop and see the fans not turning. Since we are 2 km from lunch and 2 km from home - drive home and I spend an hour going over the connections and no luck.

Today,start her up to go to the dealer and the fans work. Behaves perfectly and I leave it at the dealer for 5 hours. They can find nothing wrong, so I drive it back and do more driving n wet (no water logged roads).

My guess is that is was excess moisture. Now to get some wd40 and spray the connections

...and it happened again. Again during a high speed run in the rain.

Looked at the fuses on top of the battery to find one burnt out and nearly melting the plastic. Replaced the fuse and it started working. Drenched the fuse box in WD40 and hope for the best!

On what planet!!!? The fans are operated by a thermoswitch on the radiator.quote]

They certainly used to be, but cooling fans on many modern cars now are switched by a relay which in turn is controlled by the ECM, using the same engine coolant temperature sensor as used for the temperature guage and engine management system. The fans come in when the engine reaches a certain temperature, and in the event of the sensor going open circuit such as the plug falling off the fans come on automatically as a safegaurd.

There is one major flaw here though, and that is the thermostat could be stuck closed leading to engine overheating, and the fans would switch on. The radiator would be cold and would have no effect on cooling whatsoever.

I would recommend regular thermostat and anti-freeze changes. Every two or three years or so.....

Drove through 400 metres of 7 inch deep water - nothing happened.

So, answer is soak the fuse box above the battery with WD40