1999 Audi A4 Overheating

SANDIY

MEMBER
1999 AUDI A4
2.0L
4 CYL
AUTOMATIC
130,000 MILES

I have just had my car serviced and it has just passed the test. 2 days later, having driven only approx 20 kms the car overheated without any warning signals. (The needle was on red). I had the car towed to my garage. They are now telling me that they have changed the water pump and checked other possibilities, but that it is still overheating and I may have "burnt out the engine". As there was no warning signal, I did not immediately notice that it was overheating and may have driven a total of 15 kms from starting the car to where I had it towed from.
The car has had a small leak for more than a year, but I have regularly filled it with green anti-freeze as soon as the light came on. I am suspicious that the garage made some mistake as this occurred so soon after the service. Clearly I can not prove it, but would be interested to hear if this is a frequent problem with an Audi of this age but with only 130000 kms on the clock. Many thanks.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,727 POSTS

You didn't say what that previous service was so there's no way to know if it is related to the new problem. You actually did have a warning the overheating was occurring. The temperature gauge takes time to get to the red "danger" area. That doesn't occur instantly. Gauges are a lot more informative than warning lights, but unfortunately they don't get your attention like a light does until after the problem occurs.

Also at issue is whenever any problem occurs, our natural reaction is to look for what just took place so we can figure out who to blame. It could be you just ran the car through a car wash, you hit a pot hole, or a mechanic just worked on it. Mechanics all fear that. They get blamed for everything that happens after they touch it.

The first thing is to determine the actual cause of the overheating. Did this occur at highway speed? If so, that rules out the radiator fan and that it was unplugged. We need details like that to figure out the cause. It isn't likely the engine has to be replaced, but further testing will be needed.