Date:         Fri, 25 Jun 2004 14:01:55 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: The vanagaon temp gauge is crap
Comments: To: Melvin Mudgett-Price <mprice@ACMEX.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <D37F9F632E52BC4ABD62A47367FA489030712F@acment5.intraax.acm
              ex.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 12:51 6/25/2004, Melvin Mudgett-Price wrote:
>I always thought the gauge going to max when the coolant was low was
>because the remaining coolant got hot real quick. Now I think about it,
>it does go to Max too quickly from a cold start. Isn't it a good tool
>though for bad, bad VW owners like me to let them know it's time to add
>more coolant?

It's because the gauge only lights the blinker when it senses an
overheat.  But the newer low-level controllers don't send a continuous
overheat signal, they just blip it long enough to trigger the light and
then let the regular temp signal reassert itself for a while -- the gauge
will blink for about three seconds after it's triggered.  This doesn't
change the average gauge reading enough to notice.

d


--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage," '85 GL "Poor Relation"