Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:05:29 -0400
Reply-To: John Brigstocke <jbrig@NETSCAPE.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Brigstocke <jbrig@NETSCAPE.CA>
Subject: Re: Odd Coolant Temp Gauge Problem
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My 86 Westy had similar problem a few years ago. Temp gauge would read
normal after start up then erratically read low. That is slowly drop to
almost cold reading and then return to almost normal in spurts. The heater
performance did not seem to change and the engine ran just fine Initially I
thought thermostat (despite the heater output being good) and I replaced it
but the old one tested just fine and the problem continued. The gauge tested
out ok so I replaced the gauge sender and all was well.
John
86 Westy
----- Original Message -----
From: "The Bus Depot" <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 12:19 PM
Subject: Odd Coolant Temp Gauge Problem
My '89 Vanagon is experiencing an intermittant coolant gauge failure. During
a long drive, the reading gradually started to drop over the course of an
hour or more, until it showed no reading at all. Even then, the heater still
blew hot. (The outside temperature was 85 degrees, but the interior of the
van was much cooler with the A/C running, and when I turned on the heat it
sure felt very hot on my feet.) The gauge continued to show no reading at
all during the rest of the drive (about 90 minutes) and again on the entire
drive home (about 4 hours). There was no noticable difference in engine
performance.
Then, on the next drive, the gauge read perfectly fine again.
Intermittant problems are always the hardest to diagnose, but I'm further
confused by the gradual drop in the reading. If it was a bad connection, I'd
have thought that the reading would have dropped suddenly, not gradually
over time. If it was a faulty temp sender, I wouldn't have expected it to
suddenly work again. And if it was an accurate reading (due to a bad
thermostat), the heater should have blown cold.
I've never had a temp gauge or sender go bad, so I don't know if perhaps
this scenario is more common than I realize and there is a simple
explanation. Anyone have a similar experience?
- Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot, Inc.
www.busdepot.com
(215) 234-VWVW
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