Keith Ovregaard wrote: > Here's another blinking light story. My 84 Westy's coolant light has > been staying on for about 2 minutes after I start her up. Once the > engine is warm and I restart, the light will react in the normal way > (blinks for a few seconds and goes out). > > I checked the coolant level (no air in expansion tank), checked the > sensor prongs (clean), checked the sensor plug (fine), and the grounds > are fine. The coolant was changed last spring by a competent VW > mechanic using the blue VW coolant. If the sensor can detect a weak > coolant to water mix, would this be a possible cause? Is the resistance > different when coolant gets heated up a bit? > The idea that the light flashes because the coolant mixture is not 50/50 is the vanagon list version of an urban legend. I tried to lay this to rest back on 27 July 2001. The subject of the post was: "Coolant resistance thru coolant level probe", if you want to find it in the archives. The bottom line is that after careful testing, I concluded that if the probes are reasonably clean and connected properly, most any water solution has a resistance low enough to satisfy the level sensing circuitry, if the electronic parts in the dash are working as intended. Other listees have addressed the issue of problems with a capacitor, I believe, at the dashboard end. Larry A. |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.