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Subject: Cooling fan problem solution

Group,

There is a large resistor behind your head light that controls the fan
speeds.  For instanst, at 95 degrees C the low fan speed comes on.  Then
at 105 degrees C the high speed fan comes on.  What is happening is the
resistor is blown out on low speed.  So the fan is not turning on at 95C
and the temperature builds up til 105C, then the fan comes on. Causing

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OK, before you do all this, take off the lower grille and unplug the
connector from the switch.  Take a 4-6" piece of heavy wire, no I dunno how
heavy, pipecleaner gauge OK?, solder a couple of male spade lugs on. Then
plug into the connector.  One pin is ground, one is low, one is hi fan. Low
fan will come on right away once you get the right combo, and you won't hurt
anything if you miss. For high fan I _think_ I had to jumper all 3 terminals
together at once, maybe not, can't remember now, sorry. This debugs the
entire relay/resistor circuit, hi and low, easily.  I keep the bit of wire
in the glovebox as back up.

Check your sensor markings, the 95/105 mentioned above is Golf/Jetta rating,
vanagon gets 83/95 values.  At least here in Canada, California engines may
go hotter?

HTH, bye, Tim