Guys,

I'm new here and new to being an Audi owner.. My girlfriend purchased a 1997 Audi A4 1.8 with 115K on it.. At the time of purchase the guy told me he had an overheating problem. He stated that he had just had a head gasket, Water pump, Timing belt on the car. I started with the Thermostat. No change. I then took the car to a shop to have the system flushed. The guys said that since the car was overheating so quickly that he couldn't do it. He said the head gasket was bad. I've been working on cars for 20yrs now and felt that it was not the head gasket. The car had no smoke, and I found nothing floating in the overflow tank. However because I was unfamiliar with the car I took his word on it.

There was no coolant in the car at the time of purchase or when the flush was going to happen. So this is what I've done...

Replaced the Thermostat.. No change.. Found just a hint of white around the old one.
Replaced the head gasket.. Found no problems or indications of leakage from the old one.
Replaced the Coolant temp sensor
Replaced the fan temp sensor
Bleed the cooling system... After doing this 3 times the car was able to run fine with no overheating.. However I had to remove all of the water to put in the proper coolant. Since I did so we are back to square one.

However I did find something strange. The upper radiator hose is hot as all get out.. However the lower hose near the thermostat is cool to the touch even when the car says it's overheating. So I put another thermostat in. I did so because I know you can have a bad one out of the box. I'm lost guys.. Ready to give up and take the tongue lashing from my girl.

I really feel that the problem is air in the line.. But the lower hose thing kinda threw me off.

Help please..