P2181 Code

[frozone]

Anyone have any experience with this before? I've noticed over the past week my engine temp gauge has gone from 1/3 of the way up, to operating temps, to yesterday being on Cold after even driving an hour on the highway... Then on the way home, the check engine light came on and that's what the scanner is saying. I figured it might be a stuck thermostat, but also kind of pointed to a ECT sensor. Wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this and what their problem was. I'll be starting with replacing the ECT sensor first...

[va-terps4]

Year and engine spec would help... that code is not unique to the Q7.

[frozone]

Good call - 2008 4.2 V8

[frozone]

So I just swapped out the ECT Sensor, the gauge is working now, but after a 10 minute warm up and 5 minute drive, the best I could achieve on the temp gauge was 1/4 of the way up... That still doesn't seem right. Anyone else's gauge read that cold while driving around?

**On a happy note - I just installed the Ziza LED lights from ECS Tuning for my license plate lights... Sharp!

[va-terps4]

I assume you've looked here:

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index...3/P2181/008577

If you can't get it up to temperature with a reasonable amount of driving, I'd say the thermostat might be stuck open.