Date:         Tue, 10 Apr 2001 17:56:04 GMT
Reply-To:     jwarner@NETWALK.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Warner <jwarner@NETWALK.COM>
Subject:      Okay, now mine is running hot too!

Listees,

Some thoughts please.

My '87 GL has not had a cooling problem for as long as I've owned it.  I've had
the usual problems - leaking heads, blown hoses, thermostat housing and other
plastic bits, rusted out pipe, bad 2-stage fan resistor, etc.  Once each of
these problems has been corected everything has returned to normal which means
my van warms up not quickly and stays at a rock-solid center of the gauge
position.  Burping the system has never really been an issue for me.  I've not
seen any problems that would seem to indicate a need to do this and have always
simply taken the approach of filling the surge tank until it stops taking
coolant.

With all that said, something new is happening:

The van is starting and warming up the same as usual, runs just as great as
always and doesn't start to get hot for at least 20 minutes.  Once it starts to
get hot it seems to just keep climbing.  Although it hasn't hit the red zone
yet and the light hasn't come on but I've been watching it very carefully and
taking measures to cool it.  I'm pretty sure that the first speed of the fan is
not kicking in anymore.  It's hard to tell with wind noise etc.  I'm wondering
if my resistor has gone bad again.  I've been using the A/C switch to force the
fan to come on.  Yet with it on continuously it's still running hot.  You gotta
love this stuff.  The other day I found myself driving down the freeway on a
perfectly nice day with the heater on full blast and the A/C on too.  It was
absurd but it seemed to reign in the temp a bit.

A week ago I took a few moments to see if I could could get a handle on the
problem.  Suspecting that the problem was related to the fan, I pulled the
grill and headlight bucket and examined the radiator temp switch and resistor.
Didn't see anything out of the ordinary on either and would like to know how to
test the resistor.  I pull the temp switch connection cleaned it and reattached
it and then observed something I've never seen before.  The fan started cycling
on and off like it should although I couldn't decide for the life of me if I
was hearing the high or low speed.  What was strange was the the temp guage
stopped working.  After some futzing (sp) around and a couple test drives it
seemed as though when the gauge was working the fan wasn't and vice verce!
Right now the gauge is working consistently.

Freeway speeds seem to help keep the temp down as opposed to stop and go which
of course makes sense.  But it seems if I go to fast it starts to really climb
again.

Any thoughts?  Can I test the resistor?  Help!

Jeff

'87 Vanagon GL
'86 Audi 5000S
'88 Fox GL Wagon (2)
'89 Fox GL Sedan
'74 Fun Bug
Other
stuff