--- On Wed, 10/14/09, neil n <musomuso@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> In the event of a sudden coolant loss, have others found
> that this
> light gave enough warning so they could pull over in time
> to prevent
> the engine from over heating?

Yes. It happened to me once. I was in the middles of the freeway.
The coolant warning light suddenly started to blink and the temp
gauge went over to the max. I immediately went off the freeway
and parked in front of a hotel.

It turned out that the small bleed hose on the top of my 1.9 engine
broke off and a lot of the coolant leaked out. Fortunately I
had tools on my Vanagon to fix the hose connection. Poured 2 bottles
of drinking water into the pressurized coolant tank. An hour later
I was back home without problems. The engine wasn't harmed as far
as I can tell today.