In fact, there are 3 revisions of the coolant relay that were fitted to
Vanagons from 1983-1991. I have described them in detail here several
times. 3 different part numbers.

Mark

Charles McGehee wrote:

> Yes, but when a part is defined as being a defective design, as
> opposed to being simply a defective item, it's given a new part
> number which may be a variation on the old number -- a  suffix of
> some sort, for example.  In the case of the relay in question I never
> ran across any suggestion that there had been a previous
> version.  The same part number was used in quite a number of other
> cars, Jettas, for instance, in addition to all of the Vanagons from
> 1981 to 1991.  So the "test population" would seem to have been very large.
>
> Charles
> '85 Westy
>
> At 06:34 PM 9/6/2006, Victor Spinetti wrote:
> .............
>> The maker (hereafter referred to as VW) designs the van & figures out
>> what
>> they need to make it work, in this case a coolant level warning
>> light "relay".  VW figures out what the "relay" is supposed to do &
>> contacts electronics makers to have it built.  When the "relays" are made
>> they get some sort of testing to see if they will work as originally
>> intended.  Then they are installed on the vans.  Now comes a crucial
>> point, suppose that after a while that many vans are returning to the
>> dealers with always blinking coolant warning lights.  Eventually the
>> problem is traced to the "relay" & a new design is created.  The
>> new "relays" fix the problem, but what happens to all the "old" ones on
>> the shelves at parts depts. & warehouses?  Ideally they would
>> be "recycled" & not used, but what if they get wholesaled out the back
>> door? After all some of them worked some of the time.  So that less
>> expensive part you might have bought could be less than ideal in function
>> even if it has an OEM logo & part # on it!
>
>