Temperature Light

[13Beetlejuice13]

Lately when i, or my wife, starts up the beetle, the red temperature light will come on and blink for a minute or two and then stop and just change to blue. Now it's winter, so there's no reason for the temperature light to come on, especially when we have just started the car. Anyone had a similar experience or know what this means?

Thanks in advance.

[Rikkk]

I just bought a 2005 and when I start it in the morning the temperture light comes on Blue until the engine is warm, in the manual this is normal and says you should not drive agresively until the light goes out.

Can't say the blinking red for a couple minutes is good. Might be low in antifreeze?

Rick

[LadybugEwa]

Blue light is correct at startup, red is not.
Blue indicates 'my engine's cold yet,' red means 'low coolant.' It goes away in couple of minutes because the coolant warms and expands slightly. Check the level, 13Beetlejuice13. Then add some VW coolant mixed 50/50 with distilled water. You might have a slow leak in the coolant, that will eventually become more easily found. When this happened to me, I kept adding the coolant mix every so often, until summer came and I could get under the car and find where the leak is. See if this works, as the next things to check are more expensive (water pump, thermostat). The level in your round coolant expansion tank should be between Min and Max. Level is easiest to see while pressing a small maglight against the side of the tank.

[13Beetlejuice13]

Cool(ant), thanks Ladybug, i'll check that.

[Terrafermi]

My wife's bug has been doing the same thing the past week [In Chicagoland, it's a tad cold here this week]. We took it into the dealer to have things checked out, as it also didn't want to stay running on the cold mornings when we started it[The battery is fine, it just needed gas till it got warm].

Now the dealer is going on about the Engine Control Module being on the fritz. If it goes, it will most likely take the engine with it. The ECM needs to get replaced and reprogrammed to work with that particular bug [Earlier ECMs were recalled around 2002 for emission reprogramming]. I just can't find enough on-line to really get an idea about the ECM and how much of what the dealer is saying is true...

I hope this helps, and if you know anything more, please fill me in.

Thanks
Brian