Franny's TDI Passat started to run hot on her Wednesday.  Luckily, it has more than an idiot light . . . when it gets hot an alarm goes off and a big STOP lights up on the instrment cluster.  She stopped and let it cool off then took it to the local service station (yes, we have a real service station in LaFayette . . . they will pump your gas and wash your windshield and everything).  Their mechanic looked and said the fan clutch was bad.  They got her an aftermarket one from O'Rielly's and installed it yesterday.  The clutch was bad . . . it looked like the fan was about to fly off the hub.  But, that didn't fix the problem.  Today I took Liv to school (about 10 miles) and it did OK going, but about 2 miles into the return trip the alarm went off and the STOP lit up again.  I stopped and let it cool, took off again and made it a couple of miles before the gage started getting close to the red . . . let it cool, went a couple of mile . . . let it cool, etc.  Finally made it home.  The coolant level is OK.  Nothing appears to be leaking.  When I took the coolant cap off it boiled over a little then stopped.  Now the coolant level looked slightly over the MAX level.

What should I check next?  Thermostat maybe?  Or should I just take it in to the dealership and have them go over it.  I don't much about Diesles, and the LAST thing I want to do is damage this engine!

Bad water pump seems to be somewhat common according to the internet. Perhaps Sal can clarify if the pump has the same plastic impeller that many of the other engines share. Looks like if that is the case, you will need to plan on the whole timing belt and goodies to fix it.

Maybe you should punt. Take it up to Sal and let him knock it out for you!

Most likely the water pump,  they had a tendency to slip,  I've send the egr coolers go bad but usually you get smoke from the tail pipe.

This might also be related . . . twice since we've had it (November 16, 2013) the light has come on saying it was low on coolant.  I've never found any sign of a leak, but both times I added between a pint to a quart of water . . . so it's going somewhere.

Maybe you should punt.

By punt, do you mean sell it and get out while we can, or get someone else to fix it?  I'm too stupid to the first one . . . And until recently, I was always too proud to do the latter.  I about over that.  I'm going to revert back to my High School football days.

I was the starting quarterback . . . for one play.  It was first and ten.  I looked at the defense and saw two mean looking 350 pound linebackers looking at me and grinning . . . then I looked at my offensive line and saw the biggest guy blocking for me weighed 135 and was wearing pink socks.  Coach sent in a play, a quarterback draw . . . I knew that wouldn't get us anywhrere, so I told them "I'm calling the shots here! I've got a better plan!"  We punted on first down and I finished out my High School football carreer in the halftime show with the marching band.   

I just had to do the coolant flange on mine,  on the back of the head,  kinda a pain,  mine wasn't showing any coolant on the ground.  It's not terrible hard to replace the coolant pump,  you have to put the front end in "service position"

"Service Position" means take everything on the car in front of the engine off, doesn't it?

Where is Sal located?

South end of the military park. He is just spitting distance from you... Well maybe longer in a car that's overheating! I'm sure you can do it in a day or so, if you have to keep stopping to let it cool down.

I love the punt on first down story! I bet you caught them off guard!!!

After all the comments here and a lot of other reading on the internet and talking to Sal on the phone Saturday, I'm 99% sure it's the water pump.  I had planned on trying to limp it to Chickamauga today (actually, yesterday since it's now after 2 in the morning) but I've been tied up trying to wrap up the plumbing job at my cabin so we can get it rented out.

Speaking of that . . . About $300 worth of plumbing supplies and a week of work later, I'm down to a small leak between the bowl and tank when you flush downstairs toilet (the seal is bad and the new one I bought is too small) . . . and a major leak in the cold water line running behind the tile knee wall in the upstairs bathroom . . . I'm going to have to pull some tin off the roof to get to it.  For now, I put a cut-off in the lines running to that secion and have them shut off until I have time and energy to tackle pulling the tin and replacing the CPVC with PEX.  That section of pipe is the last of the CPVC inside the house!  There is still one run of CPVC under the house going to the kitchen sink and outdoor faucet (but those are OK for now).  Those two sections of pipe are all that stand between me and my goal of 100% PEX.  I had to tear the drywall off 3 walls to get to busted pipes during this ordeal, but I've already got one back up.  This past two weeks of being laid off is about to kill me!  Maybe I can get some rest once I get back to work in the morning.

Hopefully, tomorrow evening after work I'll get the Passat to Sal's place.  He's pretty close to me so I "think" I can drive it that far.  There's no way it will make it to Chattnooga without a tow truck being involved.