Date:         Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:35:24 -0700
Reply-To:     Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Subject:      Temp II Sensor Questions
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Anybody had a brand-new Temp II sensor fail on them in less than a week?
I've had other sensors and thermostats go bad fresh out of the box so I
wouldn't be surprised, but I thought I'd ask.



While in Laughlin, the van started getting more sluggish the hotter it got,
and after some thought I decided that the list wisdom I recalled had to do
with the Temp II. I got under the thing in a parking garage and cleaned the
contacts, and it ran a little better after that, meaning essentially that
the symptoms were less severe and held off longer, so I decided to try to
track down a sensor (this was on a Thursday). It seemed that all the Napas
were gone from Bullhead City so I wound up at a Checker's (Kragen's, here)
and much to my surprise they could order the part ($8.95). I picked it up
the next day, 'BWD' brand.



I really couldn't see in the parking garage and my flashlight was dying
(replace those batteries before going on a trip, folks) and the symptoms had
all but gone away so I thought I'd try to get home. I found that the
symptoms had mostly gone away at around 45 mph (town speed) but I couldn't
really get higher than that on the highway. We stopped at Lake Mohave
(that's how they spell it there) on the way home for a swim, so I swapped
the thing out on the beach- at least I could see better. I also found the
wire insulation was  broken in a couple of places so I taped that off. The
van ran normally after that so I was satisfied that I had solved my problem.
Yesterday the symptoms came back with a vengeance- worse than before. Of
course nobody local has another one, so I'm SOL until at least Tuesday.



I pulled the harness and the van rpms jumped to 1200 and the rad fan cam on
immediately, a good bit below (on the gauge) the point that it normally
kicks in. What's the explanation for that? I couldn't get a resistance
reading because I was burning my arms trying to get the probe points on the
contacts. I'm going to the boneyard tomorrow morning to cut the pigtail off
of one of the wrecks down there and see if I can get a decent reading that
way.

IR temps at the top of the thermo housing were @187 and @210 at the housing
inlet from the water pump (at prolonged idle, roughly 99F ambient). That
seems a little hot to me, but it's hard to tell what's normal in these
temperatures. Are there other issues that tend to cause the Temp II sensor
to fail that I should look into?



Comments?



Cya,

Robert