overheating after modification

I had my "fix" since spring of this year on my 2014 Passat. I am not even going to mention that it is not the same car anymore.
Engine temperature seems to be fine when I am driving by my self. If I am puling even empty trailer the engine temp goes up very quickly on the highway if more power is required. Even in cold weather. This was not the case before the fix. Did anyone experienced the same or is my cooling system not working properly?

Your cooling system is not working correctly. I doubt it had anything to do with the fix, unless the tech touched something he shouldn't have.

Gen2 passats had known coolant clogging issues, how many miles on the car? How's the cabin heat?

if you notice the "dummy gauge" on the dash moves above 190F that means coolant is pushing 240-250F.

Our '12 Passat always ran hot 220-230, but the gauge never moved above 190f.

Gen 2 Passats will routinely run into the mid 220s to even the low 230s when climbing steep grades or pulling heavy loads. This is normal.

Can you provide some more information on your observed coolant temperature? Actual numbers would be helpful.

I do not have actual numbers, but if I am pulling a load the temperature will go up very quickly to 240 approx. on the gauge. Turning off the AC helped to bring the temperature down. Dealership already replaced the cabin heater because it was triggering a code for GER exhaust overheating. Also I was loosing heat on right side of the cabin which I believe was because the heater was clogged. After they replaced the cabin heater everything works normally. So question is: do I have to replace the front radiator or some sort of flush will be enough?

If it were my car, I would do the radiator. Any flush is likely to move whatever is in the radiator to the new heater core, at least partly, and new radiators are not typically very expensive parts.

Yeah, sounds like it's getting hotter than what's considered normal. Something should be done about it.

VeeDubTDI said:

Gen 2 Passats will routinely run into the mid 220s to even the low 230s when climbing steep grades or pulling heavy loads. This is normal.

Can you provide some more information on your observed coolant temperature? Actual numbers would be helpful.

Click to expand...

230 reading via VCDS still wont move the "dummy gauge", the dummy gauge reading of 240 means it could be more like 250 or so.

Any movement of the gauge I'd say is a sign of other issues on a kinda flawed coolant system that's known to gunk up.

A coolant flush is at least a minimum but knowing that those heater cores usually get tossed as they can't be flushed it may be tough to clean out the entire system.

The dummy gauge starts to move off of 190F (200F in the Touareg) at an actual temperature of 226F. If the gauge is showing ~240, there's definitely an issue.