Aside from what you have told him, ....bleed, bleed, bleed ... the
coolant system.

Something he might want to do himself......park it downhill on a steeeep
grade, back end up the hill. with the expansion tank cap off, warm the
engine, run it at the recommended bleeding speed per Bentley, then top
off the tank. That should take care of any remaining entrapped air. If
the problem shows up again, its almost for sure exhaust gases in the
coolant  which means a head leak. Head resealing is the next step. But
the down hill bleeding is an easy to do first step.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

Vanagon Man wrote:

>This is on a neighbor's van............
>
>They have a vw reman engine in their van that was installed about 2 years
>ago, Maybe 30k miles on the motor.  They say that the car runs great, but if
>they get stuck in traffic somewhere, the coolant gauge needle climbs almost
>to the top, and the red light starts flashing............once they get
>moving again, things get back to normal.  He says that he does need to add
>coolant periodically to the car.  Also, claims it does not leak from the
>heads, or anywhere else he can see.
>
>They recently took it to a shaky vw shop, where they bled the system, and
>pressure tested it, and all was supposed to be well.....the mechanic told
>him that the system was "air-locked" and needed bled.  Well, the problem is
>still occurring, they love the van, and soon have to make the 4500 mile
>drive to Seattle to relocate.
>
>I told him that the first thing i need to check for is exhaust gas in the
>coolant.  If indeed it is present, he needs a head resealing........I cannot
>think of any other tests to try to stop this for him, other than to be sure
>the radiator fan is working.............
>.
>Adam P
>81  Westy "The Brick "
>70 Single Cab "Whitey"
>74 Beetle "Ol Yeller"
>73 Transporter (STILL at paint shop)
>1988 Vanagon Wolfsburg
>1976 Transporter (New CA bus)
>1974 412 "Goldmember"
>Used Vanagon Parts for sale (mostly aircooled)
>
>
>