Help! 2015 golf overheating

ship it

New member
Joined
Sep 24, 2012
Location
Cincinnati, ohio
TDI
15 golf tdi
Temp guard shot up after short drive (5min) on freeway yesterday. We took it back home and let it cool down. Temp does not go up if it’s just idling. No sign of leak anywhere. Both of big coolant hoses(goes to radiator) are cold to touch.

Could it be water pump? Or solenoid on pump going bad? Car only has 58k miles on it.

Appreciate any input

Thanks
 

ticaf

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2018
Location
US Mid-Atlantic
TDI
Stock 2015 Golf SW S Manual TDI
...or impeller shroud stuck.
You may be able to tell by looking at the coolant return hose to the expansion bottle. Check flow with the pump cable connected vs disconnected.
 

ship it

New member
Joined
Sep 24, 2012
Location
Cincinnati, ohio
TDI
15 golf tdi
Thanks. I’ll prolly take it to local vw shop. I don’t have a time to do timing belt & pump.

Does thermostat goes bad on these motor often? Looks pretty pain to get there and replace. I’m assuming changing out the whole housing and stat?
 

ticaf

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2018
Location
US Mid-Atlantic
TDI
Stock 2015 Golf SW S Manual TDI
Thanks. I’ll prolly take it to local vw shop. I don’t have a time to do timing belt & pump.

Does thermostat goes bad on these motor often? Looks pretty pain to get there and replace. I’m assuming changing out the whole housing and stat?
Well let the shop figure out what the problem is. Most likely the water pump is the issue. VW screwed up on that pump, overengineered, to gain one percent reduction in emmisions on the cold cycle. Expensive too! And expensive labor to replace.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
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South of Boston
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'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Most people here say no. Timing belt assembly, including water pump, does not seem to be covered.
 

bigb

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2018
Location
Arizona
TDI
2015 Sportwagon S
Is anyone replacing the water pump with the non-shrouded one preemptively? My luck it would fail in the middle of BFE.
 

ticaf

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Joined
Nov 15, 2018
Location
US Mid-Atlantic
TDI
Stock 2015 Golf SW S Manual TDI
Is anyone replacing the water pump with the non-shrouded one preemptively? My luck it would fail in the middle of BFE.
If that is your worry, you can unplug the pump connector. I believe you'll get a check engine light unless you put a resistor on the connector to trick the computer the pump is there.

My guess is that the pump fails on cars that rarely reach operating temperature (i.e. short distance city driving).
 

bigb

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2018
Location
Arizona
TDI
2015 Sportwagon S
If that is your worry, you can unplug the pump connector. I believe you'll get a check engine light unless you put a resistor on the connector to trick the computer the pump is there.
My guess is that the pump fails on cars that rarely reach operating temperature (i.e. short distance city driving).

Good idea, I'll look into that. Besides, I live in the Arizona desert, we don't need no stinkin quick warmup.
 

GreenLantern_TDI

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Joined
Feb 27, 2014
Location
Iowa
TDI
2015 GOLF SEL
so today my car was running 215* at 70 mph on the interstate. It was 93* ambient temp but my car has never run that hot consistently. CACT temp was 270*-305*. So I'm guessing my pump wasn't functioning at 100%. My car sees 30k miles a year. So lots of operating temp miles.
 

ticaf

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2018
Location
US Mid-Atlantic
TDI
Stock 2015 Golf SW S Manual TDI
so today my car was running 215* at 70 mph on the interstate. It was 93* ambient temp but my car has never run that hot consistently. CACT temp was 270*-305*. So I'm guessing my pump wasn't functioning at 100%. My car sees 30k miles a year. So lots of operating temp miles.
How many miles on the car? Original Water pump?
215*F, is that on the needle Indicator or OBD?
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
If that is your worry, you can unplug the pump connector. I believe you'll get a check engine light unless you put a resistor on the connector to trick the computer the pump is there.
My guess is that the pump fails on cars that rarely reach operating temperature (i.e. short distance city driving).
i don't believe any codes are thrown for non op WP shroud.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
so today my car was running 215* at 70 mph on the interstate. It was 93* ambient temp but my car has never run that hot consistently. CACT temp was 270*-305*. So I'm guessing my pump wasn't functioning at 100%. My car sees 30k miles a year. So lots of operating temp miles.
Be mindful there are more than one WP. The A2W pump should have a duty cycle that will help those CACT and a different radiator.

A coolant flush of both systems wouldn't hurt as that 270-305F is mighty high for the A2W IC.
 

bigb

Veteran Member
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Dec 15, 2018
Location
Arizona
TDI
2015 Sportwagon S
Sitting at 200 like they programmed it to. 170* up to only God knows where it just shows 200.

I've hit 220* on a grade and the factory gauge didn't budge off 200*. It would be interesting to know at what temp it moves, it probably goes straight from 200 into the danger zone in one quick sweep.
 

Mike_04GolfTDI

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Location
Richmond, BC, Canada
TDI
Mine: 2019 Golf R DSG, Wife's: 2015 Golf Comfortline TDI
This happened with my wife's 2015 TDI when we were 1000km from home. It just randomly decided to start overheating.

We limped it over to a VW dealer and they spent an hour trying to diagnose it. They never found any problem and it stopped overheating after that.

I believe it was probably the water pump impeller shroud. It likely got stuck so it was blocking the impeller. When the dealer hooked up their diagnostic tools I figure part of the testing was actuating the shroud to see if it moves as it should, and doing so got it back to functioning normally.

It has been over a year since then, and it hasn't happened again.

Next time we go on a long trip I'll be sure to bring my VCDS cable with me. Probably would have saved an hour diagnostic fee at the dealer.
 

GreenLantern_TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
Location
Iowa
TDI
2015 GOLF SEL
I've hit 220* on a grade and the factory gauge didn't budge off 200*. It would be interesting to know at what temp it moves, it probably goes straight from 200 into the danger zone in one quick sweep.
It probably does and thats too bad VW feels it needs to hide the true temp.
 

GreenLantern_TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
Location
Iowa
TDI
2015 GOLF SEL
This happened with my wife's 2015 TDI when we were 1000km from home. It just randomly decided to start overheating.

We limped it over to a VW dealer and they spent an hour trying to diagnose it. They never found any problem and it stopped overheating after that.

I believe it was probably the water pump impeller shroud. It likely got stuck so it was blocking the impeller. When the dealer hooked up their diagnostic tools I figure part of the testing was actuating the shroud to see if it moves as it should, and doing so got it back to functioning normally.

It has been over a year since then, and it hasn't happened again.

Next time we go on a long trip I'll be sure to bring my VCDS cable with me. Probably would have saved an hour diagnostic fee at the dealer.
Can't wait till timing belt change to resolve this issue and the DPF issues as well.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
It probably does and thats too bad VW feels it needs to hide the true temp.
When was the last time you saw a temperature gauge on a car with numbers on it? Lots of new cars (including enthusiast cars like my BMW) don't have a gauge at all.
 

GreenLantern_TDI

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Feb 27, 2014
Location
Iowa
TDI
2015 GOLF SEL
When was the last time you saw a temperature gauge on a car with numbers on it? Lots of new cars (including enthusiast cars like my BMW) don't have a gauge at all.
Yeah I guess your right now that I think about it. The days of the driver needing that kinda info like oil pressure, battery voltage or trans temp seem to be going away. Hell I kinda doubt most drivers today would even know what to do with that kind of information.

For anyone following this thread for an overheat issue. Yesterday was high 90*s again with conditions same as before and my car never got over 197* and CACT never got over 250*. Seems to be a hit or miss issue.
 

740GLE

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Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
Was the car doing a regen when coolant temps spiked? I've noticed oil temps climb 5-10F when its doing a regen, have to assume coolant temps climb as well.
 

ticaf

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2018
Location
US Mid-Atlantic
TDI
Stock 2015 Golf SW S Manual TDI
Did some highway and country roads yesterday. Even had a Regen going on.
I'm comfirming the temperature stayed around 198F (91 to 93c) the whole time.
 

DevilDogDoc

Active member
Joined
Jul 22, 2018
Location
Oregon
TDI
2011 Golf
I've hit 220* on a grade and the factory gauge didn't budge off 200*. It would be interesting to know at what temp it moves, it probably goes straight from 200 into the danger zone in one quick sweep.
It moves to the right about a needles width or two when it hits 225. At 224 it’s right in the middle. I track it on my Scangauge.
 
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