Kurt Stoppkotte wrote:

> On a trip back from the West coast my temperature gauge and the red
> warning light suddenly indicated that my van was overheating.  Suddenly
> the light stopped flashing and the gauged lowered into a normal
> position.

My '85 gave me these symptoms twice - both times were when one cylinder was
leaking compression pressure into the cooling system due to a bad head
gasket (metal shim on top of cylinder) seal.  Running on the highway the
pressure in the system caused the expansion tank to overfill until it was
completely full-right to the very top. Then, when I pulled off at an exit
ramp and slowed down the coolant level in the main tank would drop way down
causing loss of continuity in the level sensor which makes the red light
flash and pegs the temp gauge to max.  Basically, just because temp gauge
goes to max. and light flashes does not mean you are overheating.  It could
just mean low coolant level.

>