[Vwdiesel] low rad temp

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/7/2008 6:57:02 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
pmdolan at sasktel.net writes:

> I have to comment that of all of the cars I have driven (with water 
> cooling), my wife's '03 Variant TDI is by far the worst for winter heating - which 
> is so amazing since her last A2 Jetta sedan TD was the BEST!!!
> 
> To make this thing bearable (hardly good, definitely no where near great), 
> we use a 1,100 watt circulating heater when parked, a 92C thermostat (NAPA), a 
> winter front (dealer gets them made somewhere, very nice part) and it is 
> still bloody cold.  VW just plain screwed up (again).
> 


  Two things I'd check.  First, I haven't seen an aftermarket 
thermostat (for the A1 and A2 anyway) that had nearly as 
big an opening and most don't have the secondary "valve" 
on them either, which diverts heater coolant properly, I believe.
Many also have bleed holes, which the OEM ones don't.  That'll
lose almost as much heat as these things make.
  Second I'd check that the heater valve opens all the way, 
there's not a restriction, something got in the heater core, kink 
in the hose etc.  Check the temp coming out with a thermometer 
and how it does on lower fan speeds compared to high.  If you 
get too much temp drop then circulation is down.  You may just 
happen to have a problem instead of a bad model.  :-)
    Loren


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