01 Jetta auto, 2.0l overheating-update problem solved

I'd like to thank everyone for their help on this.

Essentially, the car was overheating. It has over 144,000 miles on
it.

I drove the car to warm it up and noticed even though it was
overheating, the larger radiator fan was not working. I have a
Bentley and a Haynes and proceeded with the diagnostics for the fans.
I purchased a new fan and installed it and took the car for a drive.
Oh Oh, it was still going above the 190 degree mark but not to the red
line. In 6 years it has never moved off of 190 degrees.

I checked the lower radiator hose and found it cool even though the
engine was warm. As I moved my hand up the hose to the thermostat it
finally started to get warm, near the thermostat it was hot.

After replacing the thermostat (thanks for the info on no gasket
sealant!), all is well.

I should have paid move attention to the temp gauge as I noticed once
several weeks ago, it did move up about 10 degrees in temp but I paid
no attention. It's our daughters car and I only drive it every month
or so to see how it's doing.

Next time I'll know better.

Thanks again,
Dermott

cool! ;-)
thanks for the update!

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> I'd like to thank everyone for their help on this.
>
> Essentially, the car was overheating. It has over 144,000 miles on
> it.
>
> I drove the car to warm it up and noticed even though it was
> overheating, the larger radiator fan was not working. I have a
> Bentley and a Haynes and proceeded with the diagnostics for the fans.
> I purchased a new fan and installed it and took the car for a drive.
> Oh Oh, it was still going above the 190 degree mark but not to the red
> line. In 6 years it has never moved off of 190 degrees.
>
> I checked the lower radiator hose and found it cool even though the
> engine was warm. As I moved my hand up the hose to the thermostat it
> finally started to get warm, near the thermostat it was hot.
>
> After replacing the thermostat (thanks for the info on no gasket
> sealant!), all is well.
>
> I should have paid move attention to the temp gauge as I noticed once
> several weeks ago, it did move up about 10 degrees in temp but I paid
> no attention. It's our daughters car and I only drive it every month
> or so to see how it's doing.
>
> Next time I'll know better.
>
> Thanks again,
> Dermott
>