Thermostat/WaterPump/ECT replaced

August 27, 2019July 6, 2020 Jovian

Miles: 89653

While driving I noticed my temp gauge needle went above the normal stagnant 200 degrees Celsius. It actually went to 275 degrees where red is 280 degrees. The temp would fluctuate drastically changing 20 degrees within a second which isn’t possible. So something is wrong and not functioning correctly. No CEL/MIL lights came on during this, I only noticed it due to the gauge needle being erratic and hearing the engine fan working hard occasionally.

I babied it home and pulled codes with my trusty VCDS and got the following relevant ones:

15470 – Insufficient Engine Cooling / Coolant Flow
P00B7 00 [036] – –
Intermittent – Not Confirmed – Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 1
Mileage: 144311 km
Date: 2019.08.26
Time: 17:03:47

Engine speed: 1872.75 /min
Normed load value: 13.3 %
Vehicle speed: 59 km/h
Coolant temperature: 100 °C
Intake air temperature: 54 °C
Ambient air pressure: 1000 mbar
Voltage terminal 30: 13.144 V
Unlearning counter according OBD: 40
Engine: operating status: PL
Engine temp. management actuator: raw value: 209
Engine temperature management actuator: stop open: 142
Engine temperature management actuator: after-run stop: 3958
RVC_SP: 0.00 °
RVC_AV: 4.48 °
RVCPWM: 24.780 %

16987 – Insufficient Engine Cooling / Coolant Flow
P00B7 00 [096] – –
Intermittent – Not Confirmed – Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 1
Mileage: 144182 km
Date: 2019.08.24
Time: 12:58:22

Engine speed: 0.00 /min
Normed load value: 0.0 %
Vehicle speed: 255 km/h
Coolant temperature: 107 °C
Intake air temperature: 61 °C
Ambient air pressure: 1000 mbar
Voltage terminal 30: 12.558 V
Unlearning counter according OBD: 36
Engine: operating status: ES
Engine temp. management actuator: raw value: 3706
Engine temperature management actuator: stop open: 142
Engine temperature management actuator: after-run stop: 3958
RVC_SP: 235.05 °
RVC_AV: 238.14 °
RVCPWM: 20.325 %

The water pump and thermostat on these cars have been known fail especially on early models like mine, so this isn’t too surprising especially since I am just shy of 90k miles. These two parts attache to each other and do require some labor to get at and replaced. Due to this its suggested to replace them both at the same time. I am also replacing the ECT (Engine Coolant Temperature) sensor just to cover everything at once though I don’t think this is the problem.

This is a bigger job than I can do in my rental unit and want I to get it done today so dealer is my only option, as long as they have the parts in stock abd are not booked out a week. As expected they did have the parts in stock (semi-common failure pieces) and the cost wasn’t cheap at $1770 for everything done. $1100 was in parts the rest was labor. If I didn’t need it fixed today I would of taken it to a third party shop to get fixed and saved a bunch in labor and a little on parts. Here are the part numbers for the pieces involved, these parts may be superseded in the future, so check for latest versions before purchasing.

Water pump: 06K-121-011-C
Thermostat: 06L-121-111-M
Union: 06L-121-131
Coolant: G-013-A8J-1G
Sender: 06A-919-501-A
Seal Ring: N-903-168-02
Gasket: 06K-129-717-A

The last three items are for the ECT sensor replacement. So if you don’t want to replace that, you can skip those parts. With how much I was spending already it wasn’t much more to add these ECT pieces on just so it was for sure fixed today.

Dealer got it done same day without issue. Did a quick visual inspection and saw new parts in place so everything checked out. I will update if this doesn’t solve the issue but I am pretty sure this will do the trick.