newbie with a 16v! temp gauge question.

[seano]

Hi everyone,
great site, and the polo buying guide was a great help when makin my purchase!

i've got a '97 polo 1.4 16v, everything seems to be workin right, but bit worried about the temp gauge as it usually settles around and just over the 3 quarter mark. is this normal? other cars i have had usually settle in the middle.

i've checked the coolent level and its fine, gonna replace the coolant and see if that does the job, but thought i would see if its the same on other 16v.

any comments much appreciated, will try get some pics of my motor up this week!

[monkeyalan]

it should sit bang in the middle.
both the thermostat and temp sensors are common failures on mk4's so if you're gonna drain the coolant anyway i'd spend the extra £20 and change them both aswell.

while you're tinkering under the bonnet , give the throttle body a good cleaning with some carb cleaner as the butterfly inside gets very gunked up and causes problems too.

[seano]

cheers monkey alan,
the car is gettin a full service and check over at the garage next week, will let em know and see what price they can do the job for! where is the best place to order the parts from? if its easy enough to do, i will do it my self.

[monkeyalan]

the temp sender is dead easy if a little awkward and is £13 from Euro car parts or GSF.
red arrowed part unclips with the shiny clip and then the temp switch is the yellow arrowed part which comes out when you remove the big U shaped circlip.


I haven't done the thermostat so i'm not sure how easy/hard it is.

the throttle body is easy too. just wedge the accelerator pedal down, i uses my crooklock. this will open the butterfly in the TB. all you need is a clean lint free cloth (old cotton t shirt) and carb cleaner. the inside of the TB will be black with carbon.
spray some carb cleaner in and scrub away. don't go too mental with the amount you use tho.

hope this helps.

[seano]

cheers for the diagram. will have a look under the bonnet if this rubbish weather ever decides to stop raining! thanks for ya help.