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Date:         Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:57:13 -0500
Reply-To:     Joy Hecht <hecht.joy@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joy Hecht <hecht.joy@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      coolant light / temp sensor - need advice please!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi folks,

I think my coolant / temp sensor may be going, but I'm not sure, wanted your opinion.

The blinking red light behind the temp needle has been going on when it shouldn't. Sometimes when I turn on the engine, it goes on to show that it works, and then goes off - all as it should be. But sometimes when I turn on the engine it turns on and then doesn't go off. If I turn the engine off and back on, it will behave properly - go on and then go off. or go on an stay on perhaps 60 seconds and then go off.

So last night - of course after dark, in the cold and snow and ice - I'm driving with my aged mother from NYC to upstate. An hour from my sister's, in a small town with everything closed, on Christmas no less, the light comes on. I pulled over, jumped out, checked all the fluids. Lots of coolant (which I'd also checked before we started driving), lots of oil (which I'd checked when filling the tank a few hours earlier). The needle was maybe a quarter of the way up from cold, which is where it generally is when I'm driving. No signs of anything wrong. So I started driving again. Turn engine on, light comes on, goes off as it should. Five minutes later it comes back on. I did the rest of the drive really slowly with the light blinking the whole time, and the needle never above 1/4 of the way from cold.

So this morning I decided to drive to Trumansburg (six miles) and get some oil and stuff. Turn on the engine, light comes on and goes off as it should. Drive half way and the light comes back on. Needle down near cold. I get to town, run into my sister's neighbors who are vanagon folks. (So's my brother-in-law, but he's an air cooled type.) They look at the wires connected to the float in the coolant reservoir - they all look fine. Plenty of coolant in there, plenty of oil.

So I talked to the guy in the FLAPS while stocking up on oil (unrelated, Matilda drinks oil). He said that when the sensor is breaking it goes gradually, can come on and off erratically - it isn't all or nothing. Is that true, in your expert opinions?

Then I drive back to my sister's. Turn the engine on, light comes on and goes off. And it didn't come back on at all. Needle still down near cold.

What do you all think? Does this sound like the sensor needing replacement? Or something more disastrous? If I watch the needle like a hawk, can I take my aging and not-so-healthy mom back to NYC and then get it fixed when I'm back in NJ?

And why do things like this always happen when it's Christmas, or Thanksgiving, or something like that?????

Joy and Matilda, who doesn't like blinking all the time


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