I seem to spend most of my time on the motorways doing 5 mph but when pootling along whats best? Keep the revs low so you reduce the heat being generated or do you keep the revs up so your driving the coolant pump faster keeping the coolant passing through the rad and cooling it?

Having only driven petrol its always about keeping the revs up so the radiator does its job.

And is it worth taking the engine cover off to help the heat escape? Left the car for two hours then checked to oil and found the engine bay was still pretty hot.

My Dad keeps telling me that apparently if sat around too long a diesel engine the temp gauge will drop. Is this true?

TDIs retain heat in the engine a LOT longer than petrols. The engine cover won't do hardly anything TBH.

I don't know what your third paragraph is really referring to. :confused: It will definitely drop with the engine off as it always does when you take the key out and kill the electrics.

I've never needed to do anything different.

Only once or twice on the hottest days in crawling traffic has the temp gauge done anything other than sit rock steady , and even then it was only about 5 degrees up on normal.

That's an octy diesel rather than a furby but it shouldn't make any difference

I don't know what your third paragraph is really referring to. :confused: It will definitely drop with the engine off as it always does when you take the key out and kill the electrics.

Sat stationary, some diesel engine will run cooler than when they're on the move...so the fuel gauge will drop.

Depends on ambient temperature though...

Rob.

Indeed - the main thing is to not labour the engine. So don't drop it in 6th at 1500 rpm and expect to 'get away with it' - it will smoke if you plant it.

Basically just drive in the right gear

I've noticed my coolant temp guage thingy has been going up a lot lately, which I'm putting down to heat. Normally when I'm driving it's on the min but when I'm at a set of lights it goes to mid but goes down again pretty quick when I'm moving. I've found that quick moving cools it quicker than steady slow.

I've not had that needle move over the middle, ever, since I bought it.

Mostly drive on with a bit of pace on motorways, but I've been stuck in traffic jams for up to an hour and it still didnt move.

Standard apart from PD160 intake (which for this purpose wouldnt make any diff).

If the coolant temp goes up, it may be worth checking the levels. I've just never seen it move beyond the middle indication.

Youmay notice a bit of a drop in performance if you get a lot of heat under the bonnet and around the intercooler. The later can be cured by putting a vent in the drivers side wheel liner....... The former by using radiator relief made by dei. My car does a LOT of low speed work and I have gone to town on it and it seems to make a difference.

Sat stationary, some diesel engine will run cooler than when they're on the move...so the fuel gauge will drop.

Temperature gauge, surely? I noticed this in my old Fabia and it's quite funny when you're sat in traffic on a hot day and the temp needle is sat at min! I did wonder if my temperature guage was buggered, but it seems to be a common thing. Not noticed it in my Mondeo yet, but most traffic pulls out of my way when they see me coming

Chris

My temperature gauge in my VRS never EVER moves from the middle point of the gauge once the cars warmed up. I think i would panic if it ever did

Strangely MikeW, that's exactly what mine does too.

The only movement of that needle (with ignition on ) is going up to the middle point of the gauge, takes a while to get there when it's properly cold, then it gets to the middle and stays there.

If I turn off the engine but keep the ignition on with the dials 'active' it takes a good couple of hours to drop 10 degrees C.

@Scooby - that's coz they can only see smoke behind them with some red bullet-shaped thing hurtling towards them just in front of it