This past weekend we made a journey from Toronto to Chicago with our 1984 Vanagon 1.9L petrol. All went well until we were on our way back through Indiana. Ran into some construction in Indiana which slowed up traffic. Well a few minutes in the stop and go traffic, and I had a trucker come alongside telling me that coolant was spilling over. I pulled off and sure enough coolant was coming out of the top of the refill tank where there are release holes. BTW, it was about 85 def F. Warm but not scorchingly so. I let things cool a bit, added about a half a litre of water and pushed off. No signs of problems the rest of the way home. Now my first suspicion was naturally that the thermoswitch failed and the fan didn't come on, but what is perplexing is that the temperature gauge read just a smidgen above mid way, which I take as normal. So I wouldn't have expected the fan to come on. My usual run to and from work is just 8 km each way so the cooling system doesn't get taxed very much even in the summer. Does any one have any ideas as to what may have caused the problem? Is it just the rad not being very efficient and thus requiring the air flow of the vehicle in motion to help the cooling? Last year I replaced most of the hoses, and I was expecting that I would have to overhaul the rest of the cooling system (thermostat, thermoswitch, coolant temperature sender, new rad), but since the Vanagon behaved normally this summer I thought I would leave it until next year. Thanks very much. Cheers, - pavneet .......................................................................... pavneet@cyantic.com -------------------------- Cyantic Systems Corporation |
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