Good evening all.

 

Would any of the resident experts know anything about this gauge on my 2009 1.9D. After a short while the gauge slowly increases to show 90 degrees, bang on, never a needle's width up or down, even if I have been sat in traffic for 20 minutes or descended a long hill in neutral.

 

I know it's probably sounding a stupid question but I had a Disco 2 TD5 once and the gauge was fed via an ECU computer programme and never indicated anything other than cold, 1/4 defection and 1/2 (normal) no matter what. It only went to above normal when the engine had properly overheated and done damage to itself.

 

Just trying to learn stuff as this is my first Octy.

 

Julian.

Yes that's normal behaviour.

The gauge is controlled by the ECU, and even at around 70 actual temp, it shows 90 on the gauge.

If you have climatronic air con, on the pre facelift cars it's possible to read the actual coolant temperature using diagnostic mode on the climatronic LCDs.

OK, super thanks. My car is the basic thing with no added extras. Would you know how hot the engine has to become before the gauge goes above '90'?

Thanks Julian.

Mike, you've completely missed the point here. Please re-read my post an softscoop's reply. The gauge indication is ECU generated and does not accurately reflect the actual engine running temperature. To repeat my previous example, the Discovery 2 TD5 gauge never rised above 'normal' temp, even when the engine is getting seriously hot, above normal only happens when damage has been done!!

I've never heard of an Octavia overheating and damaging the engine like that.

If you're really worried about temperatures of the coolant, you could plug in a Bluetooth Obd reader and use Torque on your phone to read the data live from the ECU.

Ok then, so when I'm stuck in a traffic jam why does the temp gauge not ever go even a gnat's cok-hair over 90 - surely it muct heat up a bit before the electric fan trips on?

 

Julian.

Edited 24 September, 201510 yr by JulianS

Because they are set to read 90*C at any temperature between about 75 and 100. Over 100 and it will start to climb (I don't know the actual figures but I'm not far out).