[V8] Overheating problem - A tribute to Audi engineering and my own stupidity

[Buchholz, Steven]

... the fan on the serpentine belt should have pulled enough air through the
rad to keep the engine cool, even at idle.  I suspect that you might have a
thermostat problem ... does the radiator feel abnormally cool when the
engine is running?

I believe there was someone else on the list who did a similar thing ... if
they are on the list they might well respond ... but I think they thought
the engine weathered the event well, but in the end they found that damage
had been done ... my recollection may well be incorrect, you may want to
poke around the recent archives ...

In any event, best of luck!
Steve B
San José, Kaleefohnia (USA)

> 
> Several hours later, my daughter (returning home from a date) 
> awoke me to tell
> me that something was the matter with her Audi - of course, 
> it had overheated
> and a large pool of antifreeze was under the car.  Water temp 
> gauge wasn't
> working (intermentant grounding problem) but the oil temp 
> showed almost 130 C. 
> I immediately drove the car down the road, allowing it to 
> gradually cool - and
> when the oil temp had dropped to about 90 - I pulled it into 
> the garage and
> shut it down.  It had boiled out about 3 qts of antifreeze 
> but other than that,
> no apparent damage.
> 
> The next day we drove the car down the road and it started to 
> overheat, so we
> pulled over, let it cool down and drove back home.  Since 
> then, the v8's
> cooling system hasn't work (possible vapor lock?) although 
> the car runs as
> strong as ever.  The car starts and runs well - remove the 
> cap from the
> radiator reservoir and it appears to be normal.   However, 
> drive it down the
> road for 10 minutes and it will overheat.   One final note - 
> the car just turn
> over 210 k miles.