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Date:         Sun, 20 Aug 2000 18:46:23 -0700
Reply-To:     Bill Transue <thetrans@earthlink.net>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Bill Transue <thetrans@earthlink.net>
Subject:      Radiator fan woes [87 Westy Syncro)
In-Reply-To:  <000f01c00b07$01b3a180$7c16a2d1@wd1000086onem>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Just to set the stage, I found out the hard way that my fan isn't working... while waiting in an hour and a half backup at the Tacoma Narrows Bridge!

Van: 87 Westy Syncro

Problem:

a) My temperature no longer hovers right in the middle of the temperature gauge. When I'm on the road, it cools WAY down. When I'm stuck in traffic, it boils over. I put this first, because it may be related to problems with B, below.

b) My radiator fan doesn't come on any speed. I jumpered the radiator fan plug (per Ken's nice instructions), to see if the fan would activate. Nothing happened. You can hear the relay click, but no motors come on. I checked all three hole combinations when jumpering the radiator fan cable (or is that called more appropriately the temperature sensor plug?).

I got underneath, and checked the fan motor by putting some 12 volt current to the connections. Fan comes on fine, blows strong.

Questions:

1) Is the culprit likely to be the temp sensor or could it be the under dash relay?

2) If the van was way light on coolant, would this cause any of the above problems?

3) I've checked for bubbles by opening up both the engine compartment coolant bleed valve and the front radiator one.. but is there something I'm missing here?

4) I noticed in the wiring guide in the Bently's that there is a coolant overheat alarm & warning light. I've never seen this come on.. is this standard on VW syncros in '87?

Thanks for any help & advice and sources for how to fix this problem (I've gotten consistent time outs when searching on the vanagon archives site...).

Bill


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