Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:35:03 -0700
Reply-To: mark drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: mark drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: coolant sensor 50/50 tolerance?
In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.0.20040719174947.0323deb0@mail.gct21.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Yep, another Vanagon list myth, IMHO. The mixture percentage should make
little if any difference. The false blinking light can be due to several
real causes. Very frequently the circuit that makes the led blink when
the key is turned on fails and makes the led blink when it shouldn't. In
an 89 it is a simple matter to eliminate the possibility that false
blinking is due a problem with the coolant level sensor, coolant level,
even coolant mixture.
Simply pull the relay from relay socket #3 and see what happens to the
blinking led. This relay should have a large 43 stamped on the end. If
the blinking problem continues to occur with this relay out, it has
NOTHING to do with the coolant level sensor, coolant level, or coolant
mixture. If the problem goes away with the 43 relay removed then it MUST
have something to do with the coolant level sensing system and further
efforts are needed such as what Steve suggests.
Now I have repeated for what seems like the umpteenth time, the same
info regarding a blinking temp gauge led and the simple way to start
isolating the cause.
Mark
Steve Delanty wrote:
> Phil,
> The first thing to do is to remove the coolant level sender
> and clean the probes with some steel wool or fine sandpaper
> to remove any corrosion. The water/coolant ratio shouldn't
> really matter that much I ran plain water with no anti-freeze
> in mine for a couple days and the coolant light worked fine.
> Clean probes are happy probes....
>
> Steve
>
> -------------------------------------
> At 04:14 PM 7/19/2004, Phil Menchions wrote:
>
>> Hi volks,
>>
>> I have seen recent suggestions that a deviance from the 50:50
>> coolant:water
>> concentration is responsible for an intermittent blinking light.
>>
>> My '89 is displaying the same symptoms and I'm sure it's not temp
>> related.
>>
>> I believe the mix may be a little rich on the coolant side, however, how
>> does one actually determine this and how much of a tolerance one way
>> or the
>> other makes the sensor blink?
>>
>> Is there a tool to test for the mix ratio? The turkey baster (for
>> lack of a
>> better term) gadget gives a temperature tolerance. I suppose one could
>> extrapolate from this reading but would it be very accurate?
>>
>> Phil
>> '89 Westy
>
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