I discovered this little trick by accicent.

Had the van in a garage. Mechanic refilled the radiator, went through
procedure, but didn't get the plug back into the radiator. Thought it
was in - not. I'm running down the road at 60 mph, the red light comes
on. Stop, look, expansion tank is low. Happen to ALWAYS keep some
coolant on hand. Topped it it off. Down the road again. Red light comes
on. Same routine. Stop, check, top off. I get home, it's night, shop
closed until Monday. Can't figure what's gong on. So just parked it and
drove my other van. Monday,m topped up coolant in the tank, dove to
garage. Stopped twice to top off the tank when the light came on. Made
one stop for gas, went in to pay, and when I came out I see coolant on
the ground under the front of the van. I go two more blocks to the shop,
have the mechanic take a look - no radiator plug. system was draining as
I was driving. he started looking for that plug - found it in a drain on
the floor!!  Put it back in. I told him since the engine was warm, and
coolant was running out and I had driven all that distance - I didn't
figure there was air in the system. Topped the tank, drove on. No problemo!

The point here - you could leave the plug out/loose - drive it hard
until the coolant light comes on stop, top it off, tighten the plug -
and in all likelyhood have all the air out. Kind of an odd-hand way to
do it - but it would get the job done. On the later vans - any small
amounts of residual air will self-purge.

John

On 9/6/2013 11:16 PM, David M wrote:
> Continued my coolant top-up operation. Refilled tank again and brought engine up to full temperature. Gauge stayed in middle, radiator fan came on high-speed. Coolant tank overflowed so I stopped engine and screwed top back on tank and reconnected hose. Ran engine again and coolant went down a little more. Still NO coolant came out of thermostat bleed valve.
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> David (1987 Wolfsburg)
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