Van Overheated, Advice Appreciated

[GoldSyncro]

Went for a drive yesterday in the Picos mountains and after a long climb the van overheated to the point where the engine stalled and wouldn’t turn over. Luckily, after letting it cool down it started allowing us to limp down the mountain and home. During the climb the water temperature gauge gave no indication of a problem (although the radiator fan came on twice but then only briefly) but the oil gauge showed over 120 degrees. On the motorway the same simptoms persisted – low water temperature, high oil temperature?? The day wasn’t overly hot, 25 degrees and a little cooler as we headed up the mountain.

Since I fitted my new winch the oil has run a little warmer but I put this down to the larger winch obscuring the oil cooler slightly more than the last winch fitted.

The van has been at our local garage but they can’t find anything wrong. They’ve suggested taking it to our local VW garage but before I do that I’m hoping someone could suggestion a possible cause or at least prioritize where to start looking. I’ve also got my fingers crossed that the overheating hasn’t caused any irreparable damage!!

The van has a 1.9 mechanical 1Z tdi with intercooler and external oil cooler.

Cheers

Robert

[garyd]

Did you actually check that the oil radiator or the feed pipes were hot or could the oil thermostat be stuck open? (My oil stat is open when cold to allow oil to pass through the take-off plate and return to the engine from the filter. When it gets hot, the stat closes this route and forces the oil to route through the radiator.)

[..lee..]

Sounds like an inaccurate water temp gauge? It must have got very hot to stop the mtdi dead. Can you rig up another water temp gauge as a double check. At least that should confirm what you suspect.

Is it only since the new winch has been fitted? Poss reverse the mod and check again?

Lee

[jed the spread]

Seems weird it just stopped on an MTDI, have a look at the wire to the pump to make sure the connection is OK.

Jed

[Mudlark]

Dont know if the mechanical tdi would exhibit the same problems i had with the etdi when the MAF went awry but it was running hot very quickly and felt like it was in limp home mode. New MAF is a simple swap and always good to have a spare.

[GoldSyncro]

Thanks for input. Took the van out for a few hill climbs today. Oil temperature reached 110 degrees. Stopped and felt the oil cooler feed pipes and they were hot so I guess the sandwich plate thermostat is working as it should. Over the next couple of days I'll remove the winch to see if this makes a difference. I'll also replace the water temperature sender as my temperature gauge didn't show any signs of life.

[Aidan]

test the wiring to the gauge 1st - take the connector off the sender and earth to the chassis, ignition on gauge should go max and light flash - if not then it's a wiring issue/loose connection/bad connection - clean the sender connection with some scotch pad and contact cleaner on the spade terminal and snug it up a bit
put a ohm meter on the sender see whether the resistrance is in spec before replacing it