tenspeed

Sorry, no thermostat pictures. I did a brief images.info.com search and everything I found looked like an ordinary thermostat found in any car. I did notice that the same part was used in several different models. The TDI thermostat seemed to be attached to a composite housing that bolted to the engine and had a hose attachment.

jr'sAudiA6

Yea, I came up empty as well but thanks for looking. I've been trying to get a picture of our driveshaft but no luck. Would you have a picture of it?

tenspeed

This one might do it.

DB22

For those of you trying to evaluate the temperature and its warnings you could try enabling, via VAG-COM, the Lap Timer option. This will give a display of engine oil temperature and you can check it against your temperature gauge reading. Although they don't mimic each other, it is a good indication of the engine temp. My gauge is always in the middle with 4 bars but the engine oil temp fluctuates between 179 to as high as 205.

tenspeed

Good idea. I had a car that had both gauges and I noticed that it took longer for the oil to come up to temperature. IIRC it was about 15-20 minutes before the gauges matched.

jr'sAudiA6

I have the lap timer enabled via VAG-COM but it does not get displayed because of the firmware in the instrument panel for a 2012. AFAIK it works for 2013 and up vehicles. So yea, it would be nice to display the oil temp.

ko_audi

Just to add my 2 cents: I experienced the exact same problem last week, and the thermostat was determined to be the lone culprit.

My family and I had headed out to Palm Desert (from LA); car was fine during the drive ... but later in the evening I experienced the same issues reported elsewhere in this thread -- i.e., temp. gauge pegged in the red, warning to let the engine idle, etc. I pulled over and shut if off a few times, with it cooling sufficiently each time for me to limp back (in stages) to our resort. The next morning, I decided to chance the 6-mile drive over to the Audi dealer in Rancho Mirage, figuring I'd pull over and call for a tow if it looked too dicey. I ended up making it to the dealer just fine, and their eventual diagnosis was a "stuck" thermostat (it was "stuck closed," failing to open when necessary). They replaced it for me that same day, and the car is as good as new. (I should add that I purchased my 2012 in Sept. 2011, and it's been flawless the entire time until this incident. 23,000 miles.)

So, FWIW, the issue/problem does appear to be isolated to the thermostat.

By the way, a special thanks to Mark Wilson and Audi Rancho Mirage ("Desert European"?).... Mark and the team took care of me and my car at a moment's notice when I arrived there at 7:30 a.m. with no appointment, making sure I had my car back -- fixed and cleaned -- before the end of the day. Obviously things could have gone far worse considering I was away from home when this went down. So, thanks!!!!

jr'sAudiA6

Glad to hear that you made it to the dealer without requiring a tow. I also purchased my 2012 in 2011 and it has been mechanically flawless as well until this overheating and driveshaft problem occurred. I have had two other warranty issues addressed since my purchase but they did not disable the car. I certainly am hoping the thermostat the dealer put is improved over the original. In my opinion having a thermostat as a high failure item is inexcusable. If Audi is trying to improve its standing in the area of reliability this is not a good start but time will tell.

gronk

I just had this problem as well with low coolant + engine overheating, thermostat replaced.

Anyone who had this replaced, did you need it changed again or was it maybe a batch of defective thermostats? Also, anyone know how much this would cost outside warranty?

ko_audi

Well, granted it hasn't been that long yet ... but I certainly haven't had to do any follow-up work related to this. I'm hoping it's exactly like you suggested, and merely a batch of defective thermostats that were placed in some of our cars. (Sorry; no idea on the cost outside of warranty.)

Cheers,
Kevin