Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 22:29:29 -0500
Reply-To: John Rodgers <jhrodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <jhrodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: Last call for overheating help
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
John,
If you have a good mechanic around your area get him to to use one of
those Infra Red heat sensing devices that NASA developed, which have now
been incorporated into the auto maintenance industry.
Beginning with a cold start, he should be able to take readings and find
where your problem is. My mechanic always does this after flushing my
vans cooling system and installing new coolant and/or thermostat. He can
tell what is heating up, what is not. He can watch the temp rise of
various components as compared to other components and determine if the
differences are normal or the rate of warm up is normal. He can tell
exactly when the thermostat opens. It's a good test. Really do suggest
you have this done.
Good Luck.
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
John Flaherty wrote:
>
> 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
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