I was stuck in a traffic jam for over an hour due to an accident yesterday. Now normally on my old car the temperature gauge would swing low to high then the radiator fan kicks in bringing it down, then it would rise again.

My Fabia - it never moved a millimeter from centre where it is all the time (except first 10 mins of a journey). Is this normal?

My coolant bottle is full of anti-freeze by the looks of it (to max) so that's not a concern but as I'm new to the car I thought I'd ask in case it's a known issue or something.

i think it's designed not to move too high so as not to worry us, i take it your fan kicked in ok?

my vrs temp never goes high either, my 205 one moves all over the place.

I couldn't really hear the fan either but I was listening to the radio lol. I'm sure its nothing to worry about, my old 306 just moved all over the place.

I've always been of the opinion that while the VAG temperature gauges are analog - needle gauges and so you should expect them to reasonably "show" the correct temperature, in reality they seem to be getting fed from a signal source that only has maybe only 4 "levels" - ie COLD, NORMAL, HOT, VERY HOT. BTW its the same on my 2000MY Passat and my wife's 2003MY Polo.

I have never seen mine go above the middle of the gauge, even on holiday to the South of Spain, stuck in traffic for two hours, with the air con on.