There was coolant under the left rear of the engine = so I took a look. White powdery substance on a coolant pipe. The = coolant looked to me to be coming from the top of the expansion tank, around the = sensor. Took it in to a shop. The mechanic says there is a = leak on the side, where the two pieces of the tank come together, so we ordered = a new one. Straight-forward. The part should be in today. = We'll get it in tomorrow. But in the meantime the coolant warning light on = the dash has started blinking all the time--even when the engine is stone cold = . Although the temp gauge reads normal. I thought, ok, we're low on coolant. Added some to the overflow with no result. Pulled = the cap off the expansion tank, thinking it would be low--but it's full to the brim. This I don't understand. Could it be simply a bad sensor? Does it sound like the coolant flow is restricted = somewhere too? Or do I have excess pressure in the system? I searched = the archives for the past 21 months but didn't find an answer.

We don't see many vanagons around here, so it's = probably impossible to find a mechanic that has a lot of experience with = them. Therefore, I'm turning to the list before this mechanic gets too deep = into it.

BTW, we took the westie 2300 miles in June from = Missouri to South Carolina and back and the gauge stayed steady at just above the = warning light. We then took it 6700 miles up to Canada, across western = Canada, then down the coast to San Diego and back to Missouri. The gauge = ran up to 2/3 on a hot day on the interstate heading north. Was fine in the Rockies. But we lost a little coolant. Discovered a leak in = a coolant pipe which was replaced in San Diego. On some steep grades = heading to Jerome and Prescott, Arizona the needle went all the way to the top = and the fan came on momentarily, but other than that it behaved ok, so I don't = know if we have a cooling problem. I have given some thought to a new = radiator, though.