Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 12:47:15 -0400
Reply-To: "Joe L." <jliasse@toast.net>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Joe L." <jliasse@toast.net>
Subject: Re: Overheating on 1985 Westie
In-Reply-To: <51174A1097F8D311824C00E029104B9D2100@rtiserv4.relitech.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Symptoms sound identical to what happened to me a couple of years ago.
As long as the engine revs are up and/or the van is moving at a deceint
speed all seems fine. Slow down and things turn to worms. Like you I could
not figure out what was wrong.
If yours is like mine your water pump has "partialy failed". On my pump
the impeller (the rotor inside the pump that actually moves the coolant) was
slipping on the shaft that turns it. The result was that the impeller did
turn and pump but at a much slower rate than it should have been turning and
pumping. In effect, the only time I really had an effective water pump was
when the engine revs were up as that was the only time the impeller was
turning fast enough to provide any cooling.
What really drove me nuts was that this impeller slipping was not
constant. Every now and then symptoms would vanish for hours; the result, I
suppose, of the impeller "sticking" to the shaft and working fine as long as
it was stuck. But eventually it would again come unstuck and the symptoms
would return.
Funny thing is that other than this on again off again overheating
wierdness there was ZERO other symptoms. No leakage, no noise, no pump shaft
wobble, no too tight/loose belts, no nothing.
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Carrington, Tom
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 10:40 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: FW: Overheating on 1985 Westie
-----Original Message-----
From: scote@ptbo.igs.net [mailto:scote@ptbo.igs.net]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2000 10:30 PM
To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Subject: Overheating on 1985 Westie
Can anyone help? My 1985 Vanagon overheats in the following circumstance.
The van starts fine and can run for hundreds of miles/klm. If I stop and
allow the van to idle it is still fine but when I start up again the van
overheats and the light starts flashing. At first I thought it was the
termostat. I was in a little town up north, no VW dealer. The mechanic
changed the thermostat. Said it was the right one he had checked. Stated he
had a hard time getting the coolant back in the system. A hundred klm
later I stop, coolant begins spewing out the back. Fill up. Drive on.
Several hundred klm later stop again. Overheats.
Several VW dealers have checked van and tried to make it overheat. It will
not. Fan runs when just idling. I have bled system. Changed pressure cap.
Van still overheats after running on highway. Can anyone help?
Thank you Susan
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