Then your answer is clear, at least for step 1. £25 on eBay.
It was the mid 90s before Ford started moving to digital dashes. Prior to that it was still old fashioned analogue gauges direct to sender, although Ford did use friction gauges to dampen movement.
This was pre digital, as far as i know the "adjustment" was done electrically (no, i don't know how). TBH, it might not have been a ford gauge, but the rest of the vehicle was a ford parts bin special! Lights, handles, switchgear, indicator stalks, seat frames, seatbelts and so on...
However, not a lot comes out when on ‘auto’ – only when you switch to ‘feet’ (or ‘feet’ and another).
Every car I've used with an auto setting does that.
They seem to think everyone really wants heat coming out the dash vents as priority. I either have it coming out the windscreen blower or the feet. Auto sucks. Wouldn't read too much into that.
Absolutely what Snotrag says. My car runs hotter without the undertray (which accidentally got binned grr).
You can see it, as it has a ye-olde temperature gauge which hasn't been processed.
However – to add a ittle on undertrays. Where they have been specificed/designed in, it is for a very very good reason and they can have a very important affect on the cooling capacity of your cooling pack.
Flow through radiators is based on a pressure differential – the pressure in front must be higher than the pressure behind for air to flow though. Undertrays and ducting are critical to maintaining the low pressure on the backside of the radiator, and thus promoting flow through the rad.
Removing undertrays to ‘assist’ with cooling of a car thats running hot generally causes more air to be forced into the engine bay, thus reducing the pressure differential, and reducing the cooling capacity of the radiator.
my feet are where the (blast) of cold air hits without an undertray
Matt out earlier.
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Maybe you've got poor circulation 😬
Completely different motor so maybe irrelevant but my T4 van was behaving oddly temeperature wise and the heater wasn't getting warm enough. Turned out to be a crack in the thermostat.
The TFSI's thermostats are common problems, was on my golf too. Not sure if the TSI's are better? You should be able to get a 2nd undertray for cheap I'd have thought but I'd budget to get thermostat replaced.
It seems just fine in warm or average weather – coolant temp never moves.
And other comments about the temp gauge. Correct that they are non-linear in what they display. The VW clusters I worked on (mid 2000s) had a dead band from about 80 to 110 degs, and this is common approach across all manufacturers. From a drivers POV you really only need to know three conditions: Warming up, normal running, getting too hot. My Ka didn’t have a temp gauge, just a warning lamp for if it got too hot (which I never saw).
If you have the correct coolant mix, the boiling point is way above 110degs. When working on cooling systems at Ford in the early ‘90s, correct coolant mix and pressure cap fitment would boil at 131deg at sea level, and 127deg at altitude (think top of Grossglockner pass).
I had a bad thermostat in the past. It did take longer to warm up, but otherwise the symptoms were identical. Unnoticeable during the summer months, it would sit at the correct temp all day long. In winter it would drop when descending, then sit at the correct temp when revs picked up again.
Removing undertrays to ‘assist’ with cooling of a car thats running hot generally causes more air to be forced into the engine bay, thus reducing the pressure differential, and reducing the cooling capacity of the radiator.
Just a thought but this would probably make the aircon less efficient as well in the summer, as less air would be going through the condenser.
