Date: 202001
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: ZTL.ARTCC, GA
Flight conditions: VMC
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: A321
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Climb
Airspace: Class B ZZZ
Aircraft component: Engine Control
Component problem: Malfunctioning
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Pilot Not Flying; Captain
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Anomaly: Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Maintenance Action; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Contributing factors: Aircraft; Logbook Entry; Manuals; Procedure
Primary problem: Aircraft

Narrative: Departing ZZZ for ZZZ1. E6 Logbook contained a previous writeup about a FADEC overheat in flight. I do not know if Flight returned to airport or continued. Balancing write up by maintenance said FADEC was replaced. Aircraft worked well for taxi out and takeoff; we were heavy weight with about 4.5 to 5 hours of flying in front of us. We were talking to Center passing through FL280 when we received an ECAM warning of 'ENG 2 FADEC OVHT'. This aircraft was equipped with IAE engines. We followed procedures and noted this was a crew awareness. In flight only. Procedure was to retard thrust on effected engine. We asked Atlanta to stop climb at FL290; ran ECAM procedures and noted all engine parameters were correct. I elected to slow our Mach speed to reduce thrust a little and I contacted Dispatch and was patched in with Maintenance Control and my Dispatcher. Maintenance Control had two people talking with me because the first person 'had not of this before'. While this was going on I asked the First Officer to inform Atlanta that we were talking with dispatch and may return to ZZZ. Maintenance Control told me that MAYBE a cool duct was blocked and this was causing an OVHT. ( Pilots have no way of monitoring the temp of the FADEC or its components. Maintenance Control said just reduce thrust; if ovht continued then the FADEC would fail. I told Maintenance Control that I would talk with Dispatch. Because we still had 4.5 hours remaining inflight and that may include the need to reduce thrust to idle or an engine shutdown. Dispatch said maybe drop in ZZZ2 for a new aircraft but ZZZ2 was 654 miles in front of us and ZZZ 250 behind us. I elected to return to ZZZ. Atlanta coordinated with ZZZ and we asked for 36C. All engines were running well so I did not [request priority handling]. I told them this would be an overweight landing and requested that ARFF be standing by. An overweight landing in this aircraft requires that the APU be running; this is to increase available thrust for a go-around. We elected to start the APU at 10;000 ft. APU faulted. Continued with approach and tried once more for an APU start. Again it faulted. this now leaves us to shutdown packs for landing. First Officer landing was very nice and less than 200 fpm on touchdown. Taxied in. I communicated to the Flight Attendants Several times using the ' All Call'. I kept them well informed and told them we were returning as a precautionary landing. I kept the passengers informed at all times. I felt that a continuation of this flight included to may risks that should not be included in a normal operation.




Synopsis: A321 Captain reported that an engine FADEC problem resulted in a diversion.