memzey

Thanks guys. Not sure if my car has active grills, is there an easy way to check? I too am leaning towards the thermostat so glad, in a way, that you agree. I’ll chat with my mechanic and take it from there. One last question on this, if I may, is there a non-oem brand for this part that is recommended or is it something that needs to be main dealer? The disparity in price between oem and aftermarket is large and one I’d like to avoid if possible.

Hi gang, Long time lurker, seldom poster here. I've searched the forum and can't find a match to my case so I thought I would post the question to see if anyone can help. I have a 2015 A6 Avant, 200kw, 3.0 tdi with about 100k on the clock. Never missed a service and has always worked like a charm. I am not the first owner but have put the last 30k or so on it. It came to me with FSH (not all main dealer). Now a few weeks back I was on a relatively long and spirited drive back home from Oxfordshire when I noticed the engine was overheating (warning light on and torque limited). I pulled over and immediately upon slowing down the car started to cool down again. I checked the expansion tank and I wasn't low on coolant. As the car had cooled down again I thought I'd just drive a bit more judiciously for the remainder of my journey which worked just fine. A couple of weeks after that, I was driving to work at motorway speeds and noticed the car heating up, this time only by a couple of LEDs over 90c on the dial. Again, it cooled back down to 90c when I slowed down to about 50mph and cruised like that for a while. This seemed to be getting more frequent so I took it to my mechanic. As the car never overheats on idle and only overheats when driving at speed, he suggested it was the water pump as opposed to the thermostat. He changed the water pump for me but the problem still persists on journeys over about 25 minutes in duration. Even stranger, last night I went for a drive to confirm this, as I hadn't had a longer journey for a week or so, the engine heated up as described above. I then put the cabin heater on full blast and HI heat for a while and the temperature came down rapidly and stayed at 90c regardless of my speed. All very peculiar! Has anyone experienced this before or does anyone know of what could be causing this issue? I've spoken to an Audi specialist who thinks either the new water pump was faulty out of the box or the thermostat might actually be the problem, even though the symptoms aren't typical (if such a thing exists). I did speak to him before my experiment last night though, so he doesn't have those details. I'm at my wits end trying to figure this out so any help and guidance from those in the know here would be much appreciated! memzey

Nicely done Entwood. Can you shed some light on where you placed the generic antenna please? If things change at my end, I might need to do the same.

I had a similar experience today but a better outcome - at the moment that is, touch wood it continues to work. I took the A/C control and MMI units out and tried to find a useful location inside to fix the generic antenna to. Very limited options, as you say, unless one is willing to take off other bits of trim and chase cables through (I wasn’t). I decided I would put things back as they were and place the new antenna in the roof lining by using the existing extension cable to the shark fin. Once I’d put everything back together again I thought “just give it a quick test memzey to see if anything’s changed “ and lo and behold it was working fine! 9 satellites being picked up no less!! I suspect my problem was the cable connection to the back of the MMI unit which may have worked its way loose, there was definitely something awry with it at first. All good now though apart from my endeavours have triggered the airbag light on the dash. I’ll try to pop to my mechanic in the coming days to get him to reset it for me as I don’t have an ODB reader - unless someone on these boards knows how I might be able to do it myself?

Thanks Entwood. My sat nav has me somewhere off the coast of Cornwall rather than where I actually am (London at the moment but normally Hertfordshire). I read about people checking how many satellites their unit is connected to. Does anyone know how to check this? I suspect it’s a shark fin antenna issue but am early in my diagnosis.

Can you provide a link to this article please?

Hi everyone. First post, glad to be here. I have the same issue on my facelift C7 Avant. Is there a guide on how to do this fix, including removing the MMI unit that anyone can share please? My car is a late 2015 model. Thanks everyone!