A319
Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
At cruise with light; occasional moderate turbulence; over the clouds; about 45 min out; Engine 2 EPR Mode ECAM - which directed us to push the EPR mode Push Buttons (PB) and disconnect the auto thrust. We complied. Within a minute or two the left engine started getting hot; much hotter than the right. We got an over temp warning (not that we had over temped; but that there was no protection if we kept going).It was getting hard to maintain altitude as the left ending was heating up to the high 500's I was concerned about over temping. The ride was lousy anyway; we were about to ask for lower when the ECAM interrupted us. We descended to FL290 and found a nicer ride. Contacted Dispatch and Maintenance Control via ACARS. Advised of mechanical and our intentions to continue. They concurred; or at least did not advise any other course of action.Temperatures in decent stayed steady at 550 to 580 on left engine; right engine varied from about 350 to 430. Temperature did not go down whether at idle or 60-70% N1 Later got an Engine 1 System failure (I think that was the ECAM) Complied Landed uneventfully.As we taxied off of the runway; the temperature really started to rise on the left engine. Received an overheat ECAM just as we were pulling into the gate. Shut the engine down a few seconds later.When we informed the gate agent of the problem; he got right on it: rerouting people and searching out hotel rooms for us. His was the only phone that we had available to us; which he was quite willing to share. But; it did make efficient communications a problem.The decision to cancel the flight came after weighing many options; and speaking with many departments. The bottom line was that although Maintenance Control was working within its bounds; they were not able to come up with a solution that assured us that the overheating engine problem had been properly addressed.Airplanes break. We cannot do much about that reality. But we can make communicating better. It took hours to come to a conclusion that should have taken minutes. Being forced to type into a box rather than talk to someone is a handicap. There is no way to know if our dispatcher got our message (we later found out that he did not see it). Operations never answered the radio. The station manager was fantastic in arranging everything he could; and let us use his phone when he was there; but we spent most of the time out at a remote parking place; not able to walk to ops or contact them via radio. We were at their mercy as far as communications go. It took about an hour to get a mechanic to the plane. He followed orders from Maintenance Control; but was unable to grasp the gravity of the situation: i.e.; he checked the engine for damage from overheat. He did not understand that we kept it from overheating by restricting its use. It overheated at idle at the gate for 7 seconds! If we had run it at full capacity; it would have overheated much sooner.If we had phones available to use; and staffing at the station to answer the radio; this would have gone much more smoothly.
A319 crew experienced an overheating engine warning and were able to resolve the issue before landing. Overheat warning reoccurred during taxi; resulting in cancellation of the next flight after the crew encountered communication difficulties with Dispatch and Maintenance Control.