Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 18:12:26 -0400
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: Blinking temperature light
In-Reply-To: <4A43D8CB-3059-49F0-8C05-ED5F667200AE@EricWunrow.com>
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At 02:36 PM 7/29/2013, Eric Wunrow wrote:
>I'm a Newbie but chased a similar issue for days... the light would
>blink and immediately register full hot. In my uneducated opinion
>the system is designed to show full hot when the expansion tank
>thinks there's not enough fluid, the gauge would literally go from
>normal to "overheating" within a few seconds. But it wasn't
>overheating, the blue cap was bad so it was more of a pressure
>problem. What I think the gauge was telling me was the system is
>saying "GIVE ME COOLANT!"
It sounds as though you have the early controller on an '83-4 or
maybe early '85. The threshold to turn on the blinker is the bottom
of the overheat zone on the gauge, and the old controllers would
simply do that continuously.
The newer controllers send brief pulses that will start the light
blinking but not materially affect the gauge position.
I heartily recommend you get one of the newer controllers which will
eliminate the confusion.
>I've also learned that ambient temperature has little or nothing to
>do with coolant temperature levels. I presume and it seems obvious
>that the coolant temp will run higher under load (hills, et al)
>and/or in high ambient air temps, but that doesn't mean the temp
>will be lower under normal load on a cool day.
That's why there's a thermostat. The engine (any engine) has to run
hot or various bad things will happen. This particular engine has a
rather wide control range on the thermostat, much wider than we're
used to seeing on modern Toyotas for example where the needle looks
as though it's painted on the gauge most of the time. The WBX needle
will rise a couple needle widths before the radiator fan comes on,
and then ?a couple more? before it shifts to high speed. At that
point the thermostat in the engine is still not fully open.
>My gauge also blinks many times at startup,
That's the symptom of a leaky 10 uF capacitor in the gauge blinker
circuit. It will gradually get worse until it never shuts off at
all, and in the mean time it will be flaky depending on humidity and
such. It's replaceable but right now Van Cafe has complete temp
gauges for tachometer panels for about what I would charge to replace
the capacitor.
> as does the Oxygen sensor gauge.
Any time the ALT light is on the OXS light will also be on. This was
implemented as a lamp test for the OXS light, so you can see it come
on when you turn on the key. The light itself is meaningless except
as a reminder; it turns on every 30,000 or 60,000 miles depending on
what year van you have, and stays on until you reset it manually.
> At any point that I blip the throttle, all the blinking idiot lights stop.
It sounds as though yours is one of the ones where you have to blip
the throttle to start the alternator charging. My '84 was that way
and according to the owner's manual that's a normal situation.
Yours,
David
