Hey guys, recently had my timing belt and water pump changed.

Upon setting off from some lights tonight (the temperature still hadn't come up) I accelerated away and looked down again and the temperature gauge had shot up from the bottom to approx 70 degrees C.

As soon as i let off of the throttle again, it dropped back to the bottom.

Carrying on home, the guage fluctuated a little and finally come back up.

Im guessing its a airlock somewhere in the system, i've parked the car on the flat when i got home.

I removed the expansion tank cap, and fast idled the car with the heater dial on hot but no blowers. Until it reached 90degrees where i held it there for a few minutes before letting the car idle for a couple of mins before shutting the engine off and refitting the cap.

Im just wondering if there is a bleed valve, and where i would find it?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

The cooling system doesnt normally need bleeding and doesnt airlock. The highest point of the system is the reservior and it has a return to the top of it.

Is your water pump OK (can you see coolant trickling back into the expansion tank when the car's up to temperature)? Having had my wife's car run out of coolant three times in total over last Winter and this one, you shouldn't underestimate the air cooling effect in this weather - no indication of overheating any of the times, and no sign of damage having finally got round to putting it right...

The coolant gauge does not normally move that quickly - even if there is an airlock. Check the wiring to the sender to make sure that you don't have a bad connection.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Well i've done 120+ miles today without an issue, even with half of the radiator blanked off. The car never got to the half way mark. And the 8 miles to work didnt even see the engine get hot enough to open the thermostat.

Hopefully i wont have any further issues now.

I think you may have a faulty/broken thermostat.

If the stat is closed the coolant only circulates through the engine, so it should reach 90 on a 120+ mile run. With the stat closed, little coolant flows through the radiator so the blanking should have no effect.

I think you may have a faulty/broken thermostat.

If the stat is closed the coolant only circulates through the engine, so it should reach 90 on a 120+ mile run. With the stat closed, little coolant flows through the radiator so the blanking should have no effect.

The trip wasn't a 120+mile run, it consisted of 3 individual journeys, two of which were 53miles long and the other being the commute to work. The coolant was just below 90 degrees on both of the long distance trips, and the heaters were blasting mighty warm for once

The commute to work this morning stopped with the engine getting to 70 degrees as i pulled into the car park at work.

I've seen many complaint on here, about the 1.9tdi taking an absolute age to warm up.

The stat does work, as you approach 90 degrees bearing in mind it gets time to in this weather. You soon see it open and the temperature gauge drop a little until it heats up again.

And I would say that in my case, if the thermostat was faulty. It would be stuck open and not stuck shut.