Well, I have had it topped off correctly, by Darrell Cook in Oklahoma, but
in general, no matter who does the work, the repeated top offs are simply a
fact of operating this beast for a time after any coolant system
intervention.  Getting the whole thing full is just difficult.  VW dealers
will often tell people that they will need to top off periodically for a
time, or at least they used to , when they worked on Vanagons.

On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 8:01 AM, Steven Johnson <sjohnso2000@gmail.com>
wrote:

> From day one, whenever my cooling system has been worked on by any
> mechanic anywhere, be they VW dealership, independent shop or other, not
> one has properly bled the system.   I've had to check every time after
> looking
> right after receiving the key and sure enough, the overflow reservoir was
> low
> or empty.   Top off, drive a few miles, check again.   Top off... drive
> some more
> and top off.   You can not count on anyone else to keep your system topped
> off correctly.   You must do it yourself.
>
> Steven
> 91 Westy
>
> On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 7:32 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
> >
>