You say "The coolant looked OK"... but where did it look OK?

Did you just check the tank behind the license plate, or did you open the
engine bay and look at the expansion tank in there?

Open the engine lid and make sure the coolant expansion tank is filled, if
you have a bad cap it may not be drawing coolant in from the reservoir
behind the license plate. The flashing light means either overheated
engine, or low coolant (if you go for any distance with low coolant, you
will likely overheat).

Check it now, before you drive anywhere else. Running a vanagon engine low
on coolant is a fast road to warped/cracked heads and major repair $$$!

Tim

At 11:03 AM 8/1/2006 -0700, Patricia Lenihan wrote:
>Dear Wise Volkspeople,
>   Thanks to this list for so much wit and smartness. But I have what is
> likely a dumb question.
>
>   In a 1988 manual transmission Westy, purchased early in June from
> one-owner-all-her-life, a VW-wise friend changed the oil last week. Then,
> on Friday we tried taking her for a trip, fully packed and loaded with 4
> people (she'd been driven to and from town many times before, with only 1
> or 2 aboard. She also had been driven from Minnesota to Denver, and
> Denver to Santa Fe, without incident).
>
>   We got about three miles, up and down hills, when the temperature gauge
> red light began flashing. When we stopped, you could hear the oil
> bubbling and gurgling. Coolant looked ok.
>
>   Could there have been an issue because her oil had always been
> synthetic and we changed to castrol gtx 20w50? Not sure if it had been
> synthetic but just wondering what effect such a switch might have.
>
>   And, could this be a radiator problem?
>
>   Thanks in advance.
>   Patricia
>
>
>---------------------------------
>See the all-new, redesigned Yahoo.com.  Check it out.