hey Bob so today I actually took the day off from work today and took advantage to poke around a bit. I ran the A/C on full blast and the aux fan kicked in shortly on full blast as well so my proper assumption is that that fan is good. I let the car idle to operating temp and I took a rolled up paper grocery bag a put it to the mechanical fan and I was actually able to stop it. is that normal? also with the engine cold the fan spins rather easily by hand and my understanding is that on a good fan it should have some resistance when spinning it by hand. Is that true? the car warmed up rather quickly to operating temp while idling and the needle never moved past center either. I went ahead and shut down and got down and touched my lower radiator hose and it was nice and hot and I was even able to feel the rush of coolant as I squeezed it ever so lightly so looks like the thermostat is working and there is no blockage in the system. Right now the mechanical fan is bugging me after testing it with the rolled up paper bag.

 

I don't know the answer to that question. I think the mechanical fan should be difficult to stop but I've never tired. Fingers and all

Time for Google help.

 

i poked around google and other audi forums and i did find some talk about the fan being difficult to stop. according to what i found a good fan should shred the newspaper if its running good not stop. mine stopped and the pulley free wheeled around the blades.... (by the way still got all my fingers lol)

 

Sounds like the clutch so maybe you can find a new one. Ebay?

Just looked on ebay and they are all over for $40. Easy fix I hope.

 

Just my 2 cents. If the fan kicks in and runs properly, then whether it shreds paper or not is immaterial since it is moving air through the radiator. Secondly, on occasion (hot weather, traffic, same as you) my 2.7T has run a little over the middle line on the temperature gauge, but as soon as I started moving it went down to dead center. I consider this normal - and I have 231k on the car. Finally, coolant does not last forever, so check your manual and change it if necessary. This is generally done at the same time as the timing belt change.


PS - I have a couple Chrysler Crossfires which are Mercedes SLK320 engines. They do the same thing as my Audi in hot weather and traffic.

 

ppgoal, so then as long as it bounces back to dead center as soon as I start driving again I should not be concerned? Because that's exactly what it did both times. Second why do our cars even do that anyway? On my mom's Honda Odyssey minivan and my sisters Jetta 1.8t I can sit in traffic on a hot day and not have the needle move at all...

 

I cannot speak for your other cars (maybe Hondas have amazing cooling systems and never overheat), but my two Audis and two Crossfires will show some variation from dead middle of the gauge depending on ambient temperature and how hard I drive the car. The XFs may not quite reach the middle mark in colder weather, but when stopped in traffic during hot weather or driven hard they all will go maybe a needle's width over midpoint. As soon they are driven normally for a bit, the needles return to dead center. I also have an oil temperature gauge in the A6 and it normally reads 215-225, but on the occasions when I have driven 80-100 mph and romped on the accelerator, it has gone almost to 250 (middle of the oil temp gauge). It then falls back to 215-225 with normal driving. So IMHO, a temperature gauge then shows hotter during hard use and normal before/afterwards reflects a properly operating cooling system.

 

man you are a lifesaver on this subject. yes my A6 has the same exact oil temp gauge and it marks the same exact same way as yours when I drive hard or fast (i.e. freeway) and stays near 175-200 during driving in the city. and yes my needle bounces back right away and stays normal...