Thanks John, Malcolm, Joel and Steven for your replies.

I checked for the green resistor behind the driver's head lamp. As suspected, this thing looks cooked. There are cracks around the insulation and there is a hole in the middle where I guess one of the wraparound wires shorted-out.

Can I drive with this condition? (ie. only the high speed fan operable) I was planning on going for a 4 hour trip tomorrow to Six Flags with my son and I didn't want to disappoint him.

Thanks again!

Paul Banks
'89 Westfalia called Frith (old germanic for 'fruitful peace')

On Sun, 29 Aug 1999 13:39:17 -0400 John <johnpatt@warwick.net> wrote:
>paul banks wrote:
>>
>> If anyone has had a similar experience, I would appreciate some advice.
>>
>> My radiator fan seems loud and fast when it kicks in. Usually, the fan is fairly quiet and doesn't seem to turn as fast.
>>
>> Is the fan switch malfunctioning, or is there  another vanagonesque reason that I am not aware?
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Paul Banks
>> '89 Vanagon Westfalia
>>
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>
>Paul,
>
>sounds like your hearing the high speed fan kick in. This usually occurs
>when the low speed fan resistor (behind the left headlight) is "cooked".
>This is a significant fail-safe response because the low speed fan
>function isn't doing the job. The low speed usually switches on at 95*C
>and the high speed kicks in at 102*C, so you should fix this ASAP to
>keep the cooling system temp at the lower threshold.
>
>           JP
>
>

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