This past weekend we made a journey from Toronto to Chicago with our 1984
Vanagon 1.9L petrol.  All went well until we were on our way back through
Indiana.  Ran into some construction in Indiana which slowed up traffic.  Well
a few minutes in the stop and go traffic, and I had a trucker come alongside
telling me that coolant was spilling over.  I pulled off and sure enough
coolant was coming out of the top of the refill tank where there are release
holes.  BTW, it was about 85 def F.  Warm but not scorchingly so.  I let things
cool a bit, added about a half a litre of water and pushed off.  No signs of
problems the rest of the way home.

Now my first suspicion was naturally that the thermoswitch failed and the fan
didn't come on, but what is perplexing is that the temperature gauge read just
a smidgen above mid way, which I take as normal.  So I wouldn't have expected
the fan to come on.

My usual run to and from work is just 8 km each way so the cooling system
doesn't get taxed very much even in the summer.

Does any one have any ideas as to what may have caused the problem?  Is it
just the rad not being very efficient and thus requiring the air flow of the
vehicle in motion to help the cooling? Last year I replaced most of the hoses,
and I was expecting that I would have to overhaul the rest of the cooling
system (thermostat, thermoswitch, coolant temperature sender, new rad), but
since the Vanagon behaved normally this summer I thought I would leave it until
next year.

Thanks very much.

Cheers,
- pavneet
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pavneet@cyantic.com -------------------------- Cyantic Systems Corporation