[Vwdiesel] overheating

[S. Shourds]

Driving back from a tournament in Amarillo a week ago, I looked down at 
the temp gauge and was glad that I didn't have heated seats to short 
out.  It wasn't to the red, but it was close.  On the TDI, I've never 
seen the gauge move off of dead center.  I cranked the heat and it 
dropped back fine and I got the last 15 miles home OK.  I finally got to 
work on it today.  I pulled the thermostat and boiled it up.  It opened 
up like it should, which I was disappointed to see.  I did some further 
poking around and found that the high speed fan doesn't come on if I 
bridge the thermoswitch (the low speed works fine).  I didn't check the 
thermoswitch itself yet, but on a 50 ºF night on the freeway running 65 
MPH, I can't imagine that the fans should come on, should they?

Second question:  anyone know of a good reason why the low speed fan 
would when bridged, but not the high speed fan?  Particularly a reason 
not involving the $130 fan control module?  I don't know if the ignition 
or the A/C or something had to be on for the fan to go to warp. 

I'm going to go ahead and replace the thermostat.  In the mean time, 
I'll just hope the old '85 holds together. 

-Shalyn

'00 Jetta TDI