Has this ever happened to anyone else? When I'm driving, moving, accelerating, my temp gauge stays right in the middle but if I'm stopping alot, or stop for a while it goes a tad bit over the center. Not much, maybe halfway to the next tick mark. Which I guess would be not even 1/4 of an inch. I already changet the ECTS, so that's new. I did notice that the one fan (smaller fan) doesn't rotate or do anything when sitting still or accelerating..? I'm assuming this can't be normal? ANy help would be great. Thanks.

 

dont car normally get a little hotter when stopped cuz there is no airflow i could be wrong but i think i heard that from someone

 

Yea that makes sense.. but i don't remember it ever doing this before?

 

Yes this exact thing happens to me when my AC is on in real hot weather. Im not worried.
But Im pretty sure that fan should come on. I can hear when mine comes on because it sounds like a jet airplane. But even with the fan operating right, my temp still rises a tad when im stopped in hot weather w/ the ac blowing, then almost immediately goes back down when i take off. What worries me is if i go to a store or something, when i shut the engine off and come back out 10 mins later, when i insert the key before starting, the temp gauge reads a 1/4 past the middle, more towards Hot. I know this cant be real good because if it gets too hot the head or block can warp. Some older audi's and S4's have a fan that kicks on when you shut the engine off to cool things down i think. Why dont our cars have this?? ****, my dads old 88 5000s had it...

 

u probably just have a small air pocket in ur cooling system, get some dexcool and just ad some and open the bleeder on the cooling system and it should push the air out, or u can try opening ur cooling cap and starting the car and letting it run at idle with the heat on full blast for about 20 minutes and see if the coolant level drops, in regards to the engine being hotter when after u go into the store this is completely normal, the hottest an engine ever get ins the first 10 minutes after being shut down, and i think audi took the fan running after u shut the car down out of the programming for 2 reasons, 1 apperance (consiodered tacky to pull up and ur neighbors have to hear a damn fan for 20 minuites cuz ur right they do sound like a jet palne) and 2 to conserve the battery, just when u see that happen let the car sit for about 30 seconds to get the coolant circulating and the fans goin then take off and drive, no worries on it

 

That exact thing happens to me too! Maybe it always did this and I just now noticed it recently or something? So in short.. it's considered normal for the temp gauge to fluctuate a bit, especially in the scenario onepoint8tee said?

 

You can see if there is any trapped air in the system as described above, but it sounds like normal operation of the cooling system to me. You are all probably fine, a little fluctuation in the engine temp with stopping or running the AC is normal. Its when the temp starts spiking to the right that you have to get worried, not when its 1/8 past the center notch.