Take "bleeding cooling" whatever way you want

I bought a Ph1 GTI-6 just over a week ago - test drove it, drove it back home and this missus has been using it to go to work and back all week without problems.

Drove up to Skegness on Saturday and it was fine again, until we hit some traffic - had been sitting stationary for maybe 3 minutes and the big red STOP light came on

One of the fans was coming on, the top hose is hot, the bottom hose is warm, but the rad is stone cold (or at least feels that way), all over, even where the top hose comes in - its like its blocked there or something.

Anyway, we stopped for 10 mins then got back on our way - it was running hot but just under the 130? mark. The heater stopped blowing hot air too. Got to destination and let it cool, then pulled the filler cap and there was a blast of air. Ran it stationary with the rad cap off for 15 mins, and all seemed well (i.e. it wasnt overheating) but as soon as we were on the move again it went back up high.

Opened it up again yesterday and it took about a litre of water - then drove home with the red light on but the temp sitting just under the 130? mark. Car pulls fine, wasnt getting any hotter - weird.

Drove to work today and after about ½ hr the temp was back up just under 115 but the red light didnt come on. Stopped in the office carpark and after maybe 3 mins it was back in the red again.

The car has had a new water pump and also the thermostat replaced fairly recently.

I can only think its one of two things:
The headgasket, but theres no water/oil mixing and its no overheating as such, just running hot?
Some kind of uber airlock, but then I thought running it with the rad cap off would sort this?

Anyone got any other ideas? From searching it seems that these are a bit tricky to bleed, so Im wondering (read: hoping ) whether thats what it is. If not Im a bit stumped but fearing the worst. HELP!

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Lots of Nissans, two 306 GTI-6's. They are catching up!

Cheers mate - whats the process for it?? Do you undo the first one first, let it run to temp, then close and do the second, then close and do the third??

I guess the thermostat housing is where the top hose comes out of the engine, but are the matrix hoses obvious too?

As for HG, it was my first thought and still seems a candidate but I wouldnt imagine I could drive for 2.5 hours on a blown one without experiencing more problems than a high temp gauge ........ Im probably wrong though

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Lots of Nissans, two 306 GTI-6's. They are catching up!

Hi done this a few times on my XSi - it goes something like this:
- start with the lowest bleed screw (cap head bolt on the thermostat housing?) (open the screw until you get water out, then close it quick!)
- do the same for the one on the heater hose between the back of the engine and the bulkhead (black plastic cap, like a tyre valve cap)
- finally the one on the radiator (if fitted?).

Keep the engine running whilst your doing it, make sure the heater is set to Hot, and keep an eye on the level in the rad of course.

The Haynes book talks about putting a header tank on the radiator inlet, but I've never done this - it seems to almost "self-bleed" after a little while, providing you've not got a mahoosive airlock somewhere...

im having same trouble and have managed to find a leak in my heater matrix ,after i bleed it properly which takes foreva it will last a couple of days then it will happen again i have just brought some stop leak to see if it will fix it ill post my results in couple of days

yup! Otherwise the coolant is just going round the block, and not going out to the rad.

Sorted it yet?

Hi I have 06 gti 6,and have problems with overheating,heater inside of mycar doesnt blow hot air at all,even when I put on hot.Temp goes up to 100 degres and than fans kick ic,and it doeesnt go back under 90 degrees.Help please,what I have to do????