I finally got some time to check out the van. The expansion tank was a little low, maybe down 1/2 to 1 inch, and the reservoir was a little low, but not beneath the minimum line. I put more coolant in both and drove it work today. Aside from getting rear-ended this morning, with no apparent damage, the van ran fine on the way to work and in the middle of the day when I went out to run some errands. At the end of the day, I drove down the road and got on the 250 bypass, a 4-lane with speed limit of 55 mph. Shortly after getting on the bypass, the light started blinking and the temperature gauge needle rose, within a 2-mile distance, to the middle, just over top of the blinking light. By that point, I was about a mile from home, so I drove there and let the van cool down.

After the van cooled, I checked the oil; it was a little over a half quart low. I hadn't checked it because I have only put about 3,000 miles on the van since the new engine was installed. This may seem like normal leakage to you all, but I've seldom needed to add oil between oil changes since I've had my van and the level was fine the last time I checked it.

After adding the right amount of oil, Pennzoil 10W-40, I started it up to move it out of the driveway. The blinking light came on and stayed on while I was moving it.

It seems like I probably have the problem David referred to, with the coolant level controller triggering and "poor contact at the sender or dirty sender pins". Does this seem like a reasonable assessment to you all?

Oh, the idle has been fine all the times I drove it today, but I may not have driven it long enough for this problem to show itself.

Marc Perdue

On Thu, Sep 14, 2017 at 3:33 AM, David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net> wrote:

> If the pressure bottle is not low, turn the key on and observe closely. > If the blinking stops after a couple seconds and then restarts a few > seconds later, the coolant level controller is triggering and the problem > is likely poor contact at the sender or dirty sender pins. > > But if it simply blinks without pause, it's probably a leaky ten uF > sixteen volt capacitor inside the gauge. Replace the cap or the gauge. > Could also be the ten volt panel regulator out of spec or gauge bolts need > tightening. > > Yrs, > d >