so occassionally my car will run cold it like wont heat up all the way (the needle exactly in teh middle of the temp gauge) and its not even cold out today it was 60 here and the needle was right about the "C" and i had been drivin for 45 mins! ... then all of a sudden it just went right up to where it normally is but after 30 - 45 mins?!

electric problem ?
thermostat?
bad gauge?

 

Did it instantly move up there or move smoothly up there?

If up smoothly over about 30 sec to 3 min then sticky thermostat.


If instantly (under a second) then a bad connection either on the temp sender or guage itself.

 

yea it was a smooth movement up ... like 45 seconds

so its my thermostat ... how much is that / is there a diy or is this a shop job?

 

Yup, Definetely the thermostat Soooo....


Looks like its located on the front of the engine near the waterpump. You'll need to pretty much do the same thing as if replacing the timing belt. Gonna be pricey if you don't do it yourself. If you do do it yourself you might as well do the water pump, timing belt, aux belt, tensioner...the whole job.

 

well i was gonna get timing belt water pump done in about 10k can i wait that long with the therostat is it bad for the car?

also should i get the aux belt n tensioner done when i get the TB and water pump done?

 

You can always wait and hope that it continues to unstick after awhile. However running that cold long isn't good for your engine. You're looking at possible cracks on the block heating up that quickly. There is also that your guage could still be lying to you. It only senses one part of the cooling system(admittedly usually in the block) but your engine could be running hot for that period and then rapidly cooling down still putting your engine in danger of cracking. Therefore, your choice. Better to get it done really soon before your next tank of gas.

As for the timing belt, you definetely need to do the tensioner and pulleys. The danger is pulleys actually freeze up and cause the belt to break rather than the belt wearing out. YOU NEED TO REPLACE THE TENSIONER AND PULLEYS!! As for the water pump..some times the plastic impeller can shatter and distribute itself through your cooling system. You might as well replace it with the metal impeller pump while you're in there and avoid that.

Here is a link to the complete kit.
http://www.blauparts.com/proddetail....d=GH21113%2D1A

Best kit I know. $350

Even has the thermostat

 

i have an 02 a6 that site says only good to 01?

 

I think Audi just extenxed the warranty on the thermostat, I got a letter form them weeks ago.... Thye'll chnage it free of charge untl 100k miles.'Maybe while they are in there they could throw in the belt and all.. for little extra labor

 

im not the original owner of the car so i didnt get the letter ... can i still go in there and say something to them?!

 

absolutely! call them