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Date:         Tue, 12 Dec 1995 19:33:25 -0600
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dbax@mindspring.com (Donald Baxter)
Subject:      Cooling oddities on 85 GL

I made it thorough my weekend in Raliegh/Durham with the odd cooling problems that I posted on Friday (thanks SynchroHead for your response, and thanks to Richard Palmer in Raliegh who helped me get in touch with a potential mechanic). I did know about the level sensor on the refill tank but what I neglected to mention was that the refill tank (the one behind the license plate) was overfilling for some reason. It started out at just below the "max" mark and ended up all the way at the top seeping out the vent holes.

It also turns out that the van was, in fact, overheating at traffic lights while remaining perfectly cool at freeway speeds. The needle goes up to hot very quickly in traffic. Incidently, no leaks detected anywhere except from the overfilling fill tank at the top vent holes--nothing from the water pump, heads or at the front of the van.

With all this in mind, I decided to drive the van back to Atlanta on Monday morning--getting back up to Raliegh the following weekend would have been a real problem so I managed to convince myself that the van would make it. I tried to keep the trips off of I-85 at a minimum, and just to fill up with gas. The van would start to get warm as soon as I got off the freeway but ran great at speeds of between 65 and 70 MPH--no odd noises and fuel mileage of around 19 MPG.

I made to my usual repair shop and am waiting for his diagnosis. My suspicion is that the water pump has either stopped pumping, or the thermostat is stuck. If the water pump was running at reduced capacity, that would explain the overfilling fill tank--the pump could have been unable to pump coolant to the radiator (even with the temp gauge up high, the radiator fan never came on). Perhaps all that hot coolant just expanded past the expansion tank and into the fill. Whatever it is, it was cold enough down here to keep it cool on the freeway for 400 miles between Raliegh and Atlanta.

Any ideas from the list?

Donald Baxter


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