Hi Eric, et al,
Checking in from cold Penobscot, Maine where I finally have both my Vanagons at home after 6 months of 1 or the other being at the repair shop!  Rebuilt tranny &  new clutch, muffler for the syncro doka, minor heater controls repair, new brakes, etc for the Westy.  
I have already registered for my 1st VW campout of 2018, Bus Fusion in Almonte, Ontario, Canada in early June.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Zany Festivus,  Joyous Solstice, or a Festive Kwanza, etc. etc etc. to all, & to all a good morning.

Mr. BZ

> On Dec 22, 2017, at 10:32 AM, Eric Caron <ecaron1@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
> 
> Hi Mark,
> 
>        Hang in there.  It may be just what you think, good meaning service providers not doing a detailed job.  I sure faced this a lot in my area.  I even had a time when I had the van driven 10 miles home and when I called the shop with my observations they took it back by flat bed to redo the work.  Ugh!
> 
> Fingers crossed you get a easy long term fix.
> 
> I’m sure others will have better mechanical suggestions. The white smoke is concerning but if you fill and bleed and all is well then perhaps just burning off spilled coolant.
> 
> 
> Eric 
> 
> 
> On Dec 22, 2017, at 09:48, Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Yeah, so, my van seems incapable of running longer than a week or two
> without something happening, dang it.
> 
> You all may recall I had written about the red blinky light coming back on
> just after starting the van up. There was plenty of coolant, and the temp
> seemed fine, though I discovered it was leaking a small amount of coolant
> from the lower thermostat housing.
> 
> I took the van into my local Volvo shop because they love working on vans
> and they're closer than 40 miles away. They fixed it and cleaned it up
> inside and out, an additional service I got for "free" from many visits
> getting vehicles repaired. The van looked and ran great . . . for a while.
> 
> Last Saturday, I bought a "new" car to trim down my fleet of vehicles. I
> know, that doesn't make sense. I bought it so I could get rid of my POS BMW
> wagon, plus we're giving my wife's Volvo to my daughter. New car is a 1999
> Volvo V 70 R with 81K miles on it. Woot!
> 
> Back to the van, I was driving the van up to the DMV to take care of stuff
> for the new car and I noticed that whenever I went uphill, big clouds of
> white "smoke" went billowing out the back. Well, I noticed this when I was
> about a mile from home, so I took it back home and grabbed a different car
> to go to the DMV. Sigh...
> 
> I checked the van later and, while I can't see any signs of a leak, the
> coolant reservoir is empty and the expansion tank is down by about an inch.
> For the moment, I'm thinking that the shop, after replacing the thermostat
> housing failed to deal with any coolant having been lost during the work,
> and/or bleeding the system...
> 
> There's no end with this van...
> Marc Perdue