S4 overheating, broken down

[Russboy]

So on Sunday after having been on a spirited drive for a few short miles when I got home the fans were on constantly, left it running for a while but they didn't stop at all, but no warning lights, never done that before even on the hottest of days.

Tonight, car was cold as not been used all day, drove about 3 miles to pick something up and fans cut in again. Thought it was weird and halfway home the warning lights come on saying stop engine and check coolant level. To be honest as I was already aware something wasn't right I stopped and engine off within 10 secs.

Water level in the expansion bottle was fine and temp was showing at 90 degrees. Whilst switched off I opened the expansion slightly and it lost a bit of water. Left it 10 mins, started again and no warning lights, drove 1.5 miles home and it did it again as I pulled on the drive, again switched straight off.

Not sure what's wrong but it'll have to be low loaded to be fixed. Gonna call the warranty company in the morning.

Oil was a little low, just on minimum, so topped that up but that wouldn't have caused the issue as I had no oil warning lights.

Carista only had one fault that I cleared and it came back again, but I think this is more about the battery running low as I was sitting with lights etc on.

Any thoughts?

 

[PenttisHSR]

Thermostat !
Common story.

 

[Russboy]

Thermostat !
Common story.

Are the symptoms the same then?

 

[PenttisHSR]

Yes.
Thermostats fail closed, unlike B5 S4 which fail open.
Fans running constantly is first sign.
If you must drive the car, put the heater on full.

Time to take the supercharger off and replace ......Thermostat, waterpump, PCV Valve and coolant hard-line while you are in there.
Plenty of threads about this around the internet.

 

[Russboy]

Thanks, it'll be up to the garage who do the work, but thankfully they're an Audi specialist.

Also thankfully I insisted on the £80 an hour cover on the warranty and have it in writing.

 

[RyanJonS4]

Sounds like your warranty will have paid for itself in 1 go to me!

Good luck and I hope there’s no lasting damage!

 

[RyanJonS4]

Also if your friendly with your garage I’d get them to change the supercharger oil while it’s off and check for carbon build up.

 

[Russboy]

Sounds like your warranty will have paid for itself in 1 go to me!

Good luck and I hope there’s no lasting damage!

Warranty was £800 for 3 years, but I suspect it'll use up most of that.

Shouldn't be any lasting damage as the engine was off within 10 secs each time the warning came up.

 

[S4 Vorsprung1]

So on Sunday after having been on a spirited drive for a few short miles when I got home the fans were on constantly, left it running for a while but they didn't stop at all, but no warning lights, never done that before even on the hottest of days.

Tonight, car was cold as not been used all day, drove about 3 miles to pick something up and fans cut in again. Thought it was weird and halfway home the warning lights come on saying stop engine and check coolant level. To be honest as I was already aware something wasn't right I stopped and engine off within 10 secs.

Water level in the expansion bottle was fine and temp was showing at 90 degrees. Whilst switched off I opened the expansion slightly and it lost a bit of water. Left it 10 mins, started again and no warning lights, drove 1.5 miles home and it did it again as I pulled on the drive, again switched straight off.

Not sure what's wrong but it'll have to be low loaded to be fixed. Gonna call the warranty company in the morning.

Oil was a little low, just on minimum, so topped that up but that wouldn't have caused the issue as I had no oil warning lights.

Carista only had one fault that I cleared and it came back again, but I think this is more about the battery running low as I was sitting with lights etc on.

Any thoughts?

Hey Russboy....

Mine is a 2013 S4 with 82000 kms....That's around 51K miles. So my car gave me similar symptoms. The messages came up and was asked to switch off the engine and call in a technician. I did just that.

The car was taken in to the workshop on a rollback and the thermostat replaced. Mileage at the time around 46K.

 

[Russboy]

Was the thermostat in the end, now back up an running again.

£553, hoping to hear back from the warranty company that they will cover most of that, potentially only leaving me a bill of £9.