Hi there,

My '81 Diesel Vanagon started to act up today.

It always had the temp gauge smack in the middle nomatter what. 

Today I was driving on the freeway when I ran into some very slow (stop and go) traffic. Suddenly I noticed the temp gauge to go up quite rapidly. I pulled over onto the shoulder and did a quick oil and water level check. Nothing alarming. Water was quite hot though. Since I was close to an off ramp I decided to get off the freeway and have a closer look. When I drove onto the off ramp (no traffic jam there) the needle went down rapidly to below what I am used to.

I checked oil and water several times still no drop in level so there does not seem to be a problem there (I did have a leaky hose earlier this year) and managed to drive home without any incidents.

However I did notice that when driving at speeds above 25 mph the needle stays right in the middle, but  when I slow down it tends to go up. When increasing speed it goes below of what I am used to.

In my laymens opinion this indicates a thermostat problem. Could it be that it is stuck (sometimes open / sometimes closed)? Is that easy to fix (aside from going to the dealer and request to have it fixed for me)? Or do I look elsewhere?

I hope someone has a suggestion.

Jan Willem Bri�r (mr),

'77 Westy (doing conservation work on)
'78 Eight seater (just imported, waiting for inspection) 
'81 Vanagon diesel (daily driver)
'91 Renault Clio (if all else fails)
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