RE: 88 90 Cooling System question

[Peter Tracy <PTracy@ekbos.com>]

On Thursday, January 09, 1997 12:23 PM, Dennis Ruffing <altia!dennisr@uucp-1.csn.net> wrote:
>>  
>>  
>>  From: Dennis Ruffing <altia!dennisr@uucp-1.csn.net>
>>  Date: Thu, 09 Jan 1997 09:39:19 -0700
>>  Subject: 88 90 Cooling System question
>>  
>>  Friends,
>>  
>>  My 88 90 is asking for attention again and is manifesting that need in 
>>  the form of coolins system problems.
>>  
My previous experiences with cooling systems have all been pretty simple 
>>  and dealing with leaky hoses and leaky water pumps.  And the symptoms 
>>  have been pretty obvious, including running hot or puddles under the 
>>  car...  This is strange to me.  My other theories are a bad temp gauge 
>>  sender- unlikely, given the gauges consistent behaviour, a dead water 
>>  pump, which would cause over-heating, and just plain old mean and 
>>  vengeful Audi gods.
>>  
>>  Why in the world must a water pump go ~ every 100k?  You know, Mazda's 
>>  have an anecdotally supported propensity for blowing their alternators 
>>  every 80k, but that's all that ever goes wrong with the things...  Of 
>>  course, I'm not going to own a Mazda...
>>  

FWIW... The sender in my '90 200T turbo behaved in a way which could be the same as you are experiencing. As the car warmed up, the gauge would go up until a certain point just below normal and would then go to 0. What if yours is doing the same thing but the point at which it goes back to 0 is between the normal highway temp and the temp the engine goes up to when you stop? That could explain the problem.