Ed:  I oculd be wrong, but I'll bet your spare tire was pushing on
one of the rubber hoses and not the plastic.  If you have a larger
than stock spare in there or have added alloy or aftermarket
wheels/tires to your van(or a previous owner has), and your van came
from the factory with the stock steel wheels,      you may bwell have
the wrong radiator hose for your spare.  When I re did the whole 9
yards with respect to all the radiator hoses, Ken Wilford suggested
that I spend the extra money and get the hose specifically for the
alloys(the other may not even be available anymore) in case I ever
did.  The extra clearance this hose gives might solve your problem as
well?  Well, maybe next time you flush and fill.

DM&FS

At 08:56 PM 1/26/2007, Ed Wiebe wrote:

>I would like to relate my experience with our 1990 Westy on our
>recent trip to Arizona from Vancouver Island.
>On our trip back one tire developed a slow leak which forced me to
>put on the spare tire while staying overnight in a soft, gravely
>campsite.  Since the spare had not been removed from it's cradle for
>a long time, I struggled to get that thing out from under
>there.  After some banged up knuckles and forceful language the
>thing finally dropped.
>So you ask, "What does that have to do with an overheating
>problem?"  Well, ever since I've had this van, the temperature gauge
>needle has been sitting at about 2 needle widths above the red
>indicator light.  The radiator fan also would come on in stop and go
>traffic.  The thermostat seemed to function and the radiator was
>warm/hot from top to bottom.  This overheating was a nagging problem
>that I meant to get to eventually.
>While driving along highway 1 south of San Francisco, I looked at
>the gauge to see that the needle was just above the red indicator
>light.  In other words, it was running much cooler and at the right
>temperature.  I stopped immediately and checked everything I could
>think of.  It all seemed OK, so I started up and continued.
>The needle now goes up to the right spot on the gauge and stays there.
>The only answer I can come up with is that the spare tire was
>pushing onto the plastic coolant pipes and restricting flow enough
>to cause a higher running temperature.
>Another problem that may be cured is the oil/buzzer alarm coming
>on.  When the oil was topped up close to the top line on the oil
>stick, driving hard for an hour or longer and then bringing the rpms
>down quickly to 2000rpms would almost always get the buzzer to go
>off.  With the cooler engine temperature this has not happened.
>This list has helped me with many problems I've encountered, so I
>felt I would share this.  It is just another thing to consider.
>I felt pretty good about this experience.  I got a tire leak fixed,
>an overheating engine cooled and maybe fixed the oil light/buzzer problem.
>Happy travelling to you all!
>
>Ed Wiebe
>1990 Westy
>
>
>
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