Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:53:48 -0700
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: flashing coolant light purpose (Friday non-sequitur and long)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 10:24 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
> I love that !
>
> the car will automatically guestimate the cost involved with whatever code
> the ecu is flagging and setting ..
> and the display will be in Dollars !
>
> that is SO FUN ..
> that we should make a fake one just to sell !
>
We just had a long story of how a flashing coolant level light 'saved the
day' for some one's vanagon with a split hose. Here's one where the vangaon
was saved despite having a taped-over flashing light and a split hose.
As I was coming uphill on a very busy back road, heading east out of the
Portland Metroplex, through the foothills of Mt. Hood, returning from a
bicycle race...I noticed my coolant temperature gauge was beginning to move
in an unusual manner. No stinkin' no blinkin' (grin) It showed the temp.
climbing slightly. It was a little above the place where it normally sits
going uphill. I began to watch it more closely, thinking..."Hey, something
*may* be happening to cause my coolant temp gauge to move a little higher
than normal"
I was on a very serpentine county byway that the crowds of Portlanders
use to avoid the traffic mess that exists on the freeways near the Columbia
and Willamette River bridges...An archaic 2-lane that once was a rural
country lane but now is more like "The Corkscrew" corner at Laguna Seca
racetrack....with log trucks and motorhomes in place of the
racecars....People driving impatiently at 30+mph faster than the road's
sight distances dictate, nose to tail in hundred -vehicle long
'trains'....talking on cell phones, texting, putting on make up, etc etc.
I think to myself.."When I get into Gresham, about 3 miles uphill, I'll
stop at the gas station and fill up, and I better see if I have a coolant
leak, or possibly some air in the system, somehow (I have been "in denial"
for weeks now) I'm 'flicking' glances at the temp gauge as I race along
with everyone else...and I am looking for a wide place ahead, just in case
the gauge goes cuckoo...I am also watching my mirrors, alert for signs of
steam. The gauge climbs a little more...it is now just above the taped over
LED, and my fan comes on....I think..."That's it, I have a leak for sure, I
have to pull over ASAP and fix it" I see some steam from the rear,
also....The coolant temp gauge is definitely higher than normal now...
In about 1/4 mile, I find a wide spot....actually, almost a 'turn-out',
which is very rare on rural NW back roads..
I think..."Should I try to make the gas station so I can be on level dry
ground?" ...but another glance at the temp gauge shows it almost at 'Hot",
so I whip the van out of traffic and slide into the mucky little
'pull-out'....I hear the fan motor on high now. "Yep, cooling problem" me
thinks.
This is all happening to my 'old' motor, before I fixed a faulty
headgasket....I suppose I could have skipped that bike race and stayed home
to fix the vanagon instead, on that Sunday morning, but I had been training
for that race for months...and the van had been going 'good enough' for
about 5000 miles anyhow, with the leaky headgasket.....besides, I had my
'back-up' motor sitting ready to install at home....so I didn't really care
if the old one blew totally apart....I really wanted to race and it was all
downhill TO the race. So I didn't fix the headgasket (or the flashing low
coolant warning system that's never worked yet anyhow) I did get to the
race. (I lost)
Back to the story...I pop off the grill and get out my 'custom funnel' to
top-off the cooling system at the bleed screw, like I have been doing now,
ever few fill-ups, for about a month....Usually a quart or two and it
starts bubbling back out around my hard brake line funnel extension...but
not this time. I pour half gallon in there without a sign of 'full' before
I notice, as traffic is whizzing past, that as fast as I pour it in, it runs
out by the driver's side rear wheel....
."Uh-Oh!" I go...."Maybe she finally blew" I get out my 'lay down mat' and
fight off leg cramps to slide under, to see where the water is coming out.
It is coming from the front of my inline motor's head...from an odd shaped
hose that looks like a "Horn of Plenty" ...small at one end and big at the
other with a s-shaped bend.....Out comes the Silicone Rescue Tape....
After taping up the split hose, I re-fill the cooling system with my
'back-up' to the 'back-up' water jug (I have a third back up...the water in
the kitchen tank) A nice fellow in an AC vanagon stops to offer help,
BTW. So off I go again....all fixed up. I check again at the gas station
and watch my temp gauge as I continue on home (about two more hours, around
the backside of Mt. Hood)...
After that incident, I decided to fix the headgasket leak...."As long as I
am in there" I went ahead and substituted the 2.0L ABA Jetta motor for the
old 1.8 liter Rabbit motor, along with the headgasket replacement....but I
still didn't get that blinking coolant level light fixed....Wonder if it is
still flashing under that tape in my clock face?
Don Hanson
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