In a message dated 3/22/04 4:51:37 PM Eastern Standard Time,
jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU writes:

> I finally got out of Virginia to begin my grand life living in my van.
> Well, I got as far as Chapel Hill, 280 miles.  The last 15 miles or so my
> van started to get a nasty smell that reminds me of pipe smoke, acrid pipe
> smoke.  (My friend whom I'm visiting thinks it's an industrial smell but
> couldn't pinpoint it.)  It's handling fine.  The engine light did not come
> on.  Nothing seems to be hot or smoking or anything like that.  The smell is
> inside the van, not particularly outside it or near the exhaust or engine.
> I checked the coolant and when I opened the reservoir it came bubbling out -
> not steaming, but kind of flushing out. I quickly closed it again and
> screwed the lid back on with no trouble, so there wasn't a whole lot of
> pressure there.
>
>

ummm..   joy.. youre not supposed to open the coolant resevoir when its hot..
  :<)    youre lucky you didnt get burned..

anyway when you park your van - and it cools down for a few hours - you need
to open the engine hatch  cover and make sure the main coolant tank (the one
you cannot see from behind the lisc plate)  is FULL.  since some of it poured
out when you opened it.   that one stays full all the time.   and the one
behind your lisc plate (expansion tank) should stay at the max level, below the cap
level...

joy..do you have a Bentley?  just some friendly advice, you might want to try
to brush up on your vanagon/automotive skills as much as you can if you are
going to be living out of your van and on the road all the time, and relying on
it as much as you will be needing to.....  a Bentley and some good basic
automotive manuals/how to books are probably a good idea to get for some reading
material..

i dont want to sound rude or condescending, but i had a call from a young
woman last year who was in dire need of some help..  she had bought a syncro
westy and paid good money for it, and was going to do the cross country thing in
it - just her and her dog..    well, she didnt know the first thing about
vanagons - or cars for that matter .. she proceeded to overheat the thing and
cracked the heads god knows what else- the engine was toast and she was stuck out
in the midwest somewhere..because she ignored the red flashing light, ran it
out of coolant, etc..    she called me looking for an engine.. i didnt have one
at the time.. but it could have all been avoided if she had known alittle more
about basic automotive maintenance and basic cooling system knowlege..

chris