Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 10:37:41 -0800
Reply-To: Neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: My Vanagon's blinking coolant light problem vs other
peoples'---it all blends together
In-Reply-To: <CAHTkEuLxSRoZTpnGusVO-5QPSi2yQASVMvQ8v0-x7X-_c0fApw@mail.gmail.com>
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On my '88 Westy, the coolant LED will blink continuously until I
restart the bus, engine warm. It that case, it can blink all day long
and not cause me any stress. However. I know what's been done to the
cooling system and know that the light is currently (pun intended)
malfunctioning. And yes, I should address that issue.
True the blinking light was a bit of a mystery but once I read up on
it, I realized that in each case, with each bus, the issue was with
the capacitor in the gauge. The only time the light caused me any
amount of real stress was during a trip was when it did its' job
correctly.
As attested by my posts to this list, there have been many other
Vanagon related issues that have caused me some amount of stress. That
LED is the least of my concerns. ;)
Neil.
On 12/13/14, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:
> OK, I agree that the low coolant lights on Vanagons are good things, like
> many have pointed out...they can save your engine... And we have these
> cited episodes where indeed these things seem to have done that. But
> nobody has bothered to post those episodes where the light comes on and
> cuts a trip short when only the warning system is having issues. Nobody
> mentions jumping out of the van at 2pm during a snow storm to toss
> everything on the deck lid out to check the cause of the blinky-light and
> find exactly nothing wrong, other than the low coolant warning system. How
> many hours of stress do you suppose vanagon drivers have endured trying to
> decide if the warning is valid or false? and what do you suppose the ratio
> of false indications to actual low coolant problems is, in the overall
> world of Vanagon land? Do you NOT go drive the van, in the hope that the
> warning is real? or do you go with prior experience and ignore the blinker?
> A warning system with little assurance of it being real, no good. I can
> cite plenty of episodes where my low coolant light simply fooled me and
> caused me problems that were just plain not there.
--
Neil n
Blog: Vanagons, Westfalia, general <http://tubaneil.blogspot.ca>
1988 Westy Images <https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/New1988Westy>
1981 Westfalia "Jaco" Images, technical <http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/>
Vanagon-Bus VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>