Had cam belt and water pump done at the weekend. However the lad who did it (experienced mechanic) can't get the fan to kick in.

He says they can generally take an age, but it was sat on idle for a long while, then taken for a run and then sat with high revs while Sat and still nothing.

Also the temp gauge is all over the place, used to sit bang on 90, once warmed up, now either just below or a lot below when driving, and went high whilst sat on high revs.

Any ideas? I need to do a 400mile round trip this week and need the car working.

The lad still has it and it going to have another look at dinner/lunch, but sounds like he's just gonna run it a bit more.

Any tips I can pass on? I believe he's checked the normal fuses and those on the battery. It's an vrs asz.

Cheers!

Edited 5 December, 20169 yr by Thisday

Replace the thermostat and the ECT sensor, both easy and cheap to do, if it has aircon the fans should cut in much quicker if you set it full cold and switch it on. If the fans don't cut in then check the fan motors themselves by feeding 12V directly to each one then check the fan relays are actually clicking on, the fans are two-speed so it could well be that they only work on full speed and the relays are not switching to full speed because it's not hot enough.

Thanks, he had suggest that. But now saying might be worth just running it and see how it goes.

What's the risks of doing that? Not a cost issue more of a time one.

Also, would that fix the temp issue as it was perfect before it had the belt done? He said that would be due to an airlock?

Edited 5 December, 20169 yr by Thisday

Thanks, he had suggest that. But now saying might be worth just running it and see how it goes.

What's the risks of doing that? Not a cost issue more of a time one.

Also, would that fix the temp issue as it was perfect before it had the belt done? He said that would be due to an airlock?

 

Not risky if the car is supervised while left running.

 

I can't see any other reason than an airlock but I would have replaced the ECT sensor and thermostat while the coolant was drained since they're unreliable anyway.

See post #4 here, for a concrete way of telling if the low-speed action of the fan(s) is or isn't working.

Is there one or two rad fans? 

I didn't have any copper or the time to test the fans before I had to use the car.

But it's done a faultless 200mile run today, however the temp gauge is moving around between 80-90 a lot, before it didn't shift off 90.

Also the heater is now pretty crap, it's only blowing warm air when on Max heat and on anything less it feels cool. Before setting temp to 20/22 was nice and warm with Max being very toasty. Now 22 is just cool air?

Could it still be an air lock causing this? How is the best way to clear it?

OK you changed the water pump, so maybe a bit of the old gasket is lodged in the thermostat keeping it open.

 

Buy a new OEM thermostat from a Skoda dealer and see how it goes.

 

DB.

New stat has sorted the weak heater and temp gauge issues. Cheers lads!