How long til my engine is up to temperature

longwalks1

As above, I have an Audi A4 3.0 v6 petrol. Lately, shes been losing a bit of coolant from around the water pump area, few pink drips so i top it up every couple of weeks, takes about a coffee cup full, maybe less.

Quote for a new water pump/cambelt is £700 but in all honesty, its a 2003 and getting on and isnt worth a lot, so im hoping to not spend out on it.

Never really noticed before but the temperature gauge gets up to temp in about 5 minutes of normal driving, is this 'normal'? Or is she getting warmer, quicker?

Also, the heater, even when turned up to 28 degrees blows out cool air (even today when it was hot), yet turn it up to 29 degrees (‘HI’ on the heater control display) and it suddenly blows out really hot air - could this be linked to the above issue?

Trying to work out if the pump is knackered and NEEDS doing, or have just got a small (at the moment) leak?

Only really do short trips in her anyway, so very unlikely to get caught out 60 or 70 miles from home

I’m not scrimping on maintenance, just could do without spending £700 on a car that’s probably not worth much more that that anyway

livetoclimb

Petrol engines warm up quicker than diesels, but a 3l petrol will take a while to warm the engine blkck through. Five minutes doesn't sound like long if you're on faster roads or motorway butnwoukd be very quick if it was idling in stop start traffic - but bear in mind you're probably looking at coolant temp which is not the same as engine temp. There are OBD2 plug-in devices which Bluetooth to your phone that should be able to show you oil temp which is a much better indicator.

Personally, I'd say that a car needing a new water pump and cam belt but with little else wrong would be worth doing, depending on mileage of course. Those 3l V6s do go on a while so I'd say if the rest of the car is in good condition and its under 150k miles it's worth doing.

As to whether you NEED to do it - that's something only a mechanic looking at your car would be able to say. Sounds like it's the best thing to do though... If the rest of the cars knackered then it doesn't really matter - get rid!

foxy-stoat

If you do nothing then when the pump lets go and the engine overheats you may be ok or it the head gasket(s) may need doing as well, also you risk the water pump taking out the cambelt it will destroy then engine - so chuck the car away.

If coolant is hot, heater is set to hot and air is cold it could be a circulation thing (air lock) or no coolant. For the air to be hot coming out the vents the heater matrix needs to have hot coolant in, assuming all the internal flaps are working ok. Thermostat could be sticking, radiator at the front all hot or is there any cold spots?

You have an issue, not just a leak.

onomatopoeia99

I drive a 3.2 litre, horizontally opposed, six cylinder and depending on the time of year it takes about five to ten minutes travelling on a 40mph A road to get to thermostat opening temperature on my morning commute.

While it's a similar engine capacity to the OP's car, the engine in mine is behind the driver so there is a lot more water in the system to heat up as the pipes to the radiators (there are three) and heater matrix are that much longer.

The business with the heater could be an airlock (though unlikely in this case), or the valve sticking and only getting freed when pushed the whole way open, or a duff cabin temperature sensor so it only heats when told to send heat whatever the temperature already is.

droopsnoot

Heater on that is presumably climate control, so there may be other issues involved in deciding what temperature air comes out of the vents. It might be worth getting the shareware version of VAGCom / VCDS and a cheap cable if you haven't already, and run a scan on it to see what comes up.

There's no way to predict how long the water pump can carry on with a small leak, it may run for years, or it may fail completely tomorrow. The best thing to do is to replace it, but the OP knows that already.

AdrianC

britishboy wrote: »

Never really noticed before but the temperature gauge gets up to temp in about 5 minutes of normal driving, is this 'normal'? Or is she getting warmer, quicker?

That's normal. Until the thermostat opens, the engine is just warming the coolant within the engine block - a relatively small amount. When it reaches "normal", the 'stat opens and the radiator is brought into the cooling circuit.

Also, the heater, even when turned up to 28 degrees blows out cool air (even today when it was hot), yet turn it up to 29 degrees (‘HI’ on the heater control display) and it suddenly blows out really hot air - could this be linked to the above issue?

No, that sounds more like an issue with the climate control. It may simply be a sensor issue ("HI" ignores the sensor and simply chucks hot, same as "LO" ignores it and simply chucks cold). Or it may be a more deep-rooted issue with the electronics.

If coolant level was low enough to cause an issue with the heater, it'd do it no matter the setting.

Trying to work out if the pump is knackered and NEEDS doing, or have just got a small (at the moment) leak?

Only really do short trips in her anyway, so very unlikely to get caught out 60 or 70 miles from home

I’m not scrimping on maintenance, just could do without spending £700 on a car that’s probably not worth much more that that anyway

Sorry, but that does sound rather like "scrimping on maintenance" to me... You know the water pump is leaking. Is the pump driven by the cambelt on this engine? If it lets go, that could easily be the end of the engine. Are you topping it up with a coolant/water mix, or just water?

(PLEASE don't say you've tipped a bottle of bodgegoop in there...)

droopsnoot

On a whim I watched my temperature yesterday, it was almost exactly 5 minutes from cold start to normal running temperature. It's another Audi, and a thing to watch is that the gauge is centre-weighted, so it actually hits the centre (90) a few degrees (82-odd) before the coolant does, but five minutes sounds perfectly reasonable for warm-up in this weather. In the winter, I expect it will take longer just because the coolant is starting from a lower temperature.

AdrianC

droopsnoot wrote: »

On a whim I watched my temperature yesterday, it was almost exactly 5 minutes from cold start to normal running temperature. It's another Audi, and a thing to watch is that the gauge is centre-weighted, so it actually hits the centre (90) a few degrees (82-odd) before the coolant does

Modern temp gauges don't tell you the temp. They're ECU controlled to only tell you that it's "about normal", without moving across a fairly wide range of temperatures. Think of 'em as "low/normal/high" and you're about there.

longwalks1

Thanks all, and yes, I think deep down I do need the water pump/cambelt replacing, just holding back spending on it ��

On a plus side, no more coolant leak in the last week or more, and the heater is working as it should too. Going to keep an eye on it, you can see the cambelt on her and it’s condition, she’s only done maybe 25k since last replaced so will keep an eye around the water pump area for any new leaks.
And nope, wouldn’t dream of using the dreaded gloop in the header tank

z1a

"She & Her" !!

Nearly_Old

One of our cars in addition to the normal temperature gauge has an oil temperature sensor. In average conditions the water temperature gauges are normal within 2 miles for both cars but the oil temperature takes about 10 miles to reach normal. A few years ago I drove a Z4M and the revs were electronically limited until the oil was up to temperature and we try not to exceed 3,000rpm for the first 10 miles in our own cars. Its not that restrictive as 3,000 is around 70 in mine and 80 in hers!