Sounds perfectly normal. When the van is not moving, there is no air
flow through the radiator. As the radiator warms up , the warm water
coming out will cause the engine to run hooter. When the coolant in the
radiator reches the set point for the fan switch, the fan will turn on.
If the tempaparature continues to rise, the fan will go into high speed.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Greg Kriss
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 7:33 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Van runs hot in traffic jams

Have a 90 Carat with an auto trans. Engine has maybe 150K on it. The van
runs fine, minimal oil useage and almost no coolant useage. Normal
driving, running around town, or at 60mph on the highway, the temp guage
always stays cool below the idiot light in the center of the guage. But
when I get stuck in a traffic jam, after a few minutes the van runs
hotter with the guage needle above the idiot light. I was stuck in a 5
mile backup in NYC Sunday night moving along between stop and go up to
maybe 15mph. (over an  hour of creeping along). Outside temp around 35
degrees. The needle was above the idiot light and once or twice the fan
went on. Van never came close to overheating. Air flow I'm sure was
probably minimal in front of the van. Once through the backup, and up to
a steady 40+ mph the needle went below the idiot light. Rest of trip van
ran cool.

Warmed up the van for 15 minutes yesterday morning and needle never went
above the idiot light. Running around town for an hour or so yesterday,
van ran cool as usual.

What goes? Is this normal?

My guess is that the cooling syatem is a bit under-designed for traffic
jams.

thanks

Greg

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