My 89 S4 has a pan mounted under the engine, and I believe it's restricting the flow of air from the radiator, thereby causing my engine to run hotter than it should - especially when the a/c is on.

I would like to remove the pan to see if it helps the car run cooler here in FL in the summer. Has anyone done this? Does it help? Are there reasons why I should not do this?

Thanks for your advise.

 

That is probably not the cause of your engine running hotter than it should.

Did you check the thermostat and the rear thermostat seal? So far that has been one of the primary causes for these cars to run hotter.

Also are you going off the dash gauge? because they are useless... out of 5 928s I have seen, 3 of them have been out by about 5 degrees celcius. I would check it with a temperature gun before anything (make sure the fans are not running when you do this)

Good luck!

*Edit, just saw your previous thread. It seems you are going down the wrong paths, here in Dubai the outside temperatures run at around 120F for a big part of the summer. Now both my cars are running at perfect operating temperatures regardless of whether I'm in gridlocked traffic or cruising at 100mph.
- 83c thermostat
- new rear thermostat seal
- removed air flaps
- new radiator fan switch
- good old standard coolant
- stock aluminum radiator
- Both undertrays installed. They are actually supposed to help with cooling if I'm correct.

 

I did have a new thermostat installed, but what is a "rear thermostat seal"? I have not heard of that.

 

It looks like this:



This is the part number: 928 106 163 00

 

Essentially allows the thermostat to seal against the block.

Thermostat / coolant flow works differently than on typical American cars.

The thermostat seals one way or the other to allow coolant to either circulate through the block or radiator. It’s not “flow / no flow” like most US cars.

 

See below

 

Also there was some speculation that the 75C thermostat does not close (open) as much as the 83C one therefore does not redirect all the coolant through the radiator. This impairs the system and does not allow it to cool effectively when it's really pushed.

 

Belly pan actually aids in flow through the engine compartment. Keep it.

That seal is important and almost never gets replaced. Just bought one last month. 15$ from the dealer.

 

If you want to get rid of it-I'll take it!!

 

Agree, my car runs cooler with the belly pan on. Clearly was designed to be part of the total airflow and cooling solution ...

 

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their input.

However, I quickly found that this is a little beyond me to fix, so I took it to my mechanic. He replaced the engine temp. sensor and also found the gauge was not reading correctly, so he fixed that as well. How the system seems to be fine, and the needle is in the mid-range even on a hot day. BTW - he also agreed to keep the engine pan.

 

Good to hear some feedback!

 

I'm not sure I read this right:
- Did he agree to keep it on your 928?
- Or did he not install it, and agreed to keep a $250 piece of your car? (at least the aftermarket version without the vents is $249; the vents are cooling the motor mounts to prolong the life of the rubber)

 

ahh more vague verbiage....
I would like to know if the rear seal on the thermostat got replaced

 

I'm sorry for being vague in my response. My mechanic agreed with the comments here that the engine pan should be kept on the car. He said he likes to keep the car original unless a change is absolutely needed.
As for the rear seal on the thermostate, he made no mention of that. It was not on the bill, either for a part or for the labor.
Thanks again for all your responses. I hope I can be of help here to someone else in the future.