Most likely you have a bad pressure cap on the main bottle. Depending on
engine temps and operating conditions, the water pump will usually keep
the coolant in place and sometimes it will not. A good pressure cap will
keep it in unless you are getting combustion gases into the system.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Jonce Fancher
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 6:36 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Coolant level changes day to day

Hi all

got a mystery to me.
i have a 85 westi that is going to be getting a new/ rebuild this winter
and ive been driving about 2-3 times a week over the past 3 months. well
i sorta watch the
coolant level and oil for that matter and have found that the coolant
one time will be low (cold). checked cold from the expansion take
through the lic. plate
cover. so i check it it low the next time it is over full the next low
again. with out adding any coolant. well it ran for awhile and found
that the coolant had stayed
low for about 4-5 checkings so i decided to add to put it up to the full
mark. maybe i shouldnt have done that. i drove it all around for about
50 miles here and
there and then parked it out back in the drive. the next day i had a
coolant spill and i checked the level and it is above the max and about
half way up the cap
with a splash of coolant on the ground where i guess it bypassed the
water pump seal and dumped out the excess.

so did it hurt the water pump?
why is it high and low on coolant?
i will need to bleed off the half way up the cap. but what the heck??

any help will be appreciated thanks Jonce

Jonce Fancher

57 Single Cab
66 Sunroof Bug
66 Variant Squareback
71 Sunroof Bus
75 911S Sunroof
84 Vanagon "Godfried"
85 Vanagon Westi
2003 10 Passenger Sprinter

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