Date:         Tue, 12 Jun 2001 22:02:08 -0400
Reply-To:     John Flaherty <jflahert@MAINE.RR.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Flaherty <jflahert@MAINE.RR.COM>
Subject:      Last call for overheating help
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi all,

Well the new radiator's in. And......STILL running hot. I'm stumped. To
recap:

84 1.9 Liter. 1 year old water pump. Noticed it running hot as the whether
warmed up and I stopped using the heat. Running the front and rear heaters
would return the gauge to normal. Radiator fan didn't appear to be coming on
when the gauge read hot. I could place my palm on the "hot" radiator and
hold it there comfortably. Front heater blew lukewarm air.

Step 1: Jumped radiator fan switch. Fan worked. Replaced switch. Still
running hot. Still no fan when hot. Still able to palm radiator.

Step 2: replaced thermostat. Still hot, no fan, palm radiator.

Step 3: Replaced radiator. Still hot. Can only touch radiator for a second,
it's quite hot now. Heard fan while bleeding, on both low and hi. While test
driving today, gauge went almost all the way to the top white line before I
shut it down. No fan. Hot air from front heater.

I'm stumped. And out of patience. This is (was) my daily driver. Between
redoing the front end and cooling system, I've spent almost $1,500 just in
parts this year. And I still don't have a van to drive. Haven't driven it,
really, in three months. I can't keep doing this. I'll give it one more
week, but if I don't have it fixed, or at least an almost certain idea of
what's wrong, I'm going to have to cut my losses. So if anyone out there has
any ides, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, my association with busses (and
VW in general; I don't fit comfortably in the cars or the Eurovan) will be
drawing to a close shortly.

Thanks,

John Flaherty
Portland, Maine