1989 VW Jetta - Help (before I freeze to death!)

Hey there. I love my VW. That being said, it has been overheating lately and the only way I can prevent it from doing this is by running the AC. With Old Man Winter around the corner, I’m going be driving around with icicles hanging off me if I don’t get the problem fixed. So far my husband has replaced the thermostat, thermo switch, relays and fuse. He’s stumped as to what it could be at this point. I’m gonna need my heater like now. Any ideas?

To solve your immediate problem, you should be able to run the heat rather than the A/C to bring the temperature down. If that isn’t the case, then the thing I would look at most is the radiator fan & controls. Turning on the A/C should turn on the cooling fan. If that is the only thing that gets the car’s temp down then the fan not turning on & off at the right temp is likely the problem. Maybe that’s what the switch, relays & fuse were aimed at, but there must be something missing.

Next time the temp is rising too much, check the cooling fan - if it isn’t operating, turn on the A/C and see if that does turn it on. That will tell you that the fan isn’t responding to whatever temperature sensor it is supposed to.

Yes, that is what the parts were aimed at. The problem is the fan is not turning on when the car gets up to temp. I’ve tried running the AC on hot, but that’s not very effective.