Strange MkII goings on

[Dream Police]

HELP!!
I have a MkII 8v and strange things are happening.
I recently changed one of the hoses connected to the radiator.
However I forgot to bleed the system after.
My friendly VW dealer told me that all I need to do to bleed it is crank the heater up to full, take the top of the header tank and run the car til the fan kicks in.
All seemed OK, there was air bubbling out the header tank.
However the temp needle never went over halfway, and the fan never came on, even when the coolant boiled and lots of steam came spewing out everywhere.
Any suggestions?
Ta

[golfvr6]

Faulty temperature sender? sounds like the fan switch isn't working either.

[Dream Police]

Dunno.
I only really tried to do something with it cos my girly has been driving it today and it has been running warm, needle about 3/4 instead of halfway up. It never went any higher than 3/4 even when stuck in traffic, but with the heater on it dropped down to 1/2

[modulater]

try the fan and thermoswitch first. if that doesn't help then thermostat.

[Helios_Blue_Valver]

I would go for the thermostat. In my experience when the fan switch goes out it usually quits all together and the fan just sits quietly. If the thermostat is bad it may be only partialy opening or not opening at all. I have even seen people accidently install a thermostat backwards and they will then not open until they get very hot as the temperature bit is on the cooler side of the water pipe.

[Dream Police]

Apologies to my school physics teacher but I forgot that water boils at a higher temperature (115C) under pressure.
The fan kicks in at about 108C which is why the coolant boiled before the fan came on
All seems well now though.

[Helios_Blue_Valver]

sort of forgot about that myself. math never was my strong subject anyway. glad you got it sorted.