These gauge positions are all relative.  As many list members have
reported including Ben Huot's post a day or two ago the temp gauge is
simply unreliable as an accurate indicator of the absolute engine
temperature.  It can be used as a relative indicator though.  Seems there
are only 2 ways to really know what temp your van is running at.  One is
to install a better temp gauge and the other is to use an Infrared remote
thermometer gun which is what the mechanics use.  Apparently VW has
changed the specs of the temp sensor several times confusing the hell out
of everyone.  Also the electrical connections/inst cluster is prone to
problems resulting in inaccurate temperatures being reported by the gauge.
In short the vanagon temp gauge is a POS and should not be trusted except
as a relative "warning system" that something might be wrong.

Thanks,

Andrew Fox -I'm one of the idiots that trusted the vanagon temp sensor and
after replacing it 3 times and finally believed that the system was
overheating and spent $500 replacing every cooling system part finally to
give up and bring it to a mechanic who spent 5 minutes checking its
temperatue with an IR gun and determined that in fact it was never
overheating.

On Fri, 2 Aug 2002, Jfp w/2 wbxs wrote:

> Hi,
>
> The Vanagon 2.1L cooling system with a normal 87*C thermostat will position
> temp gauge needle over the temp gauge LED during "normal" driving. During
> high speed freeway driving the temp gauge reading should be roughly the
> same. Only in slow-stopped traffic should the temp gauge pointer go above
> the red LED position. When the temp gauge pointer climbs, the 1st stage
> cooling fan should come on and off limiting the radiator temp until the van
> starts moving and usual "ram air" can again cool the radiator.
>
> Regards,   John
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Join the world�s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
> http://www.hotmail.com
>