cranky

So my wife's '03 TT has had the CEL come on, go back off for a while , then come back on again - the code stored is P2181 which is supposed to indicate cooling system malfunction.

I've done a bit of research and it appears the suspects are: faulty coolant temp sensor vs. thermostat vs. fan(s). Fans are working fine, the engine seems to warm up normally, the temp needle comes to its usual spot and stops, etc. No evidence of overheating.

I read one post where the guy replaced the t-stat (the CEL light did go out afterwards), but when he tested the old one it seemed to work OK. The consensus theory was that perhaps the old one wasn't opening at the desired RATE, and that tripped the code.

If its something that trivial, and I gather it may well be, I'm tempted to ignore this.

Any thoughts on this?

SlapTTy

Did you actually VagCom it, or just get the code from a generic code reader? Not sure if a Vagcom scan would shed any more light on the CEL issue.

HaTTfield

Coolant temp sensors are very cheap, I've replaced mine twice due to a CEL being thrown.