Date:         Tue, 15 Oct 2019 21:16:03 +0000
Reply-To:     Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Erratic temp LED and gauge needle
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 I'm on a roadtrip with my 85 Vanagon, 280K miles on chassis, 60K miles on a Subie EJ22 Kennedy conversion.  Everything fine....until I turned the key at a campground on the south Oregon coastline yesterday.  With key turned to "on", normal flashing of temperature LED for 3 seconds.  With key turned to "start", motor fired up just fine; but immediately the LED started flashing, and within 15 seconds the gauge needle was pegged at max.  Shut down motor.  Tried again.....same thing.  Went back to motor; tried unplugging and replugging the 2-wire connector on top of blue cap for the coolant reservoir.  Tried again....same.  Now, this is with a cold motor (ambient temperature around 50 F).
I presumed it was an electrical issue of some kind; not a plumbing issue.  So left the campround, with temp LED flashing away.  After about 5 miles, the temp gauge needle started dropping; after about more 5 minutes right about where needle crossed LED, the LED stopped flashing.  The needle continued dropping....to about halfway between the LED and the MIN position.  And pretty much stayed there the rest of the day. 

This morning, in chilly campground, same scenario.  But this time, even though the LED was flashing, the needle did not rise to max; instead, it rose to between LED and MIN position; LED stopped flashing after about 5 minutes.  Once warmed up, the gauge needle seems to work normally....slightly rising in stop and go traffic, slightly lowering when cruising on highway down a grade for instance.

A little baffled.  Do you think it's something back in the motor, or perhaps something in the dash instrument cluster?  (I cross-posted this email to the subaravanagon group on Yahoo.)

Rich
San Diego