mk3 8v temp up and down? why?

[folgate]

hi guys been driving my golf last few days and problems seem to be crawling out of seems. my main worry is it seems to take donkeys years to get up to temp and now its fluctuating from 70c to 90c it never seems to stick at a consistant heat and driving to work the car felt like it tried to cut out anybody ever had this happen

[Screech16v]

Hi mate this i your thermostat sticking open ,sitting in traffic it will climb to 90 and will drop down to 70 when on the move right?

[16valver dan]

mine heats up and cuts out but i know thats cos my fan is tempremental at the moment leave it running with hood up see if your fans working enough water ect i know the temp goes down on open roads and back up in traffic with mine,or the other main suspect is thermostat sticking open. the cutting out might be dirty throttle body as i have also got to get around to doing that on mine

[folgate]

ahh maybe yeah seems to drop down when on move then climbs back up when stationary, noticed the origanal owner hasnt put any coolent in just water what a dingbat

[Screech16v]

Change the stat and put some coolant in there ,then work on your cutting out prob lol,if you do a search there is $hit loads of info from fellow mk3ers that have had the same fault , 

[folgate]

cheers mate will get new stat tomoz and some coolant later and some carb cleaner to get this sorted

[Bandit127]

Change the stat and put some coolant in there ,then work on your cutting out prob lol,if you do a search there is $hit loads of info from fellow mk3ers that have had the same fault , 

+1 on that. Did my stat a few weeks ago and that is your temp problem.

You will loose nearly all your coolant when you do that job, so replace it with the pink stuff afterwards.

Cutting out is probably another problem though. A common problem is gunk build up in the throttle body - this can be cleaned for the price of a tin of brake cleaner so a cheap starting point.