Van running hot

[ndcxs16]

Hi. Hope some one can give me some advice.

Recently and succesfully replaced my heater fan, all nows works perfectly after a weekend of head scratching. I have heat!
Problem is since draining the coolant system I have run the van on a couple of short (10 miles ) trips. On my return I have noticed the temparture gauges is sitting highher then before, and THE engine smells and feels hotter than it should. The gauge used sit on top of the LED light. Its now about 3/4 up, which worries me.
Has any one got any ideas of things I should do/ look out for. Its a 1.9 Petrol engine

Things to note
I followed the bleeding instruction carefully and made double sure there was no air left in the system. Should i do it again after I ran it in?
My expansion tank is full up. Before it was on the MIN mark.
I may have put more coolant than water in. It should be 50/50 but I guess its about 60/40 after a miscalculated. Would this mattter?
Any advice would be a real help.
Thanks in advance

[golf2tim]

Hi,
I know with cars that what your describing it sounds like there is still some air locked in the system. When the engine is warm and you release the resivour cap ( carefully ) is there alot of steam coming out or is the water bubbling.

[ndcxs16]

answer here is I have never removed the expansion cap when its been hot. Friend got burnt once doing that.( I learnt from his mistake - he he)

I was thinking about trying bleeding again. Thanks

[dugwiththevwbug]

bleed it again sometimes you just cant get it all out the first time
make sure the front end is high and bleed at rad and if your van is the early 1.9 setup pre 85 bleed at the high point in the engine bay and you should get there
regards doug

[happy camper]

Also ensure that the cab heater is set to the hot position before re bleeding

[t25darren]

Bleed as per above again, one way of checking if you have air is to run the van then look in the expansion tank, do you see little bubbles ? If yes then there is air in the system, also make sure you have heater set to on and make sure you overfill the header tank (get someone to rev the van at about 2000rpm while you top up the expansion tank and replace darlek cap while revs are held at 2000prm.

It it was ok before then it can only be air really. Did you replace any sender units at the same time as the cheapo ones can give higher readings (as i found out when i got one from GSF!)

Hope that helps
Darren

[ghost123uk]

I may have put more coolant than water in. It should be 50/50 but I guess its about 60/40 after a miscalculated. Would this mattter?

No, 60/40 is OK

As they ^^^ say, bleed it again.

I do this = nose higher than tail (I use a grassy bank near us !) get engine to normal temp, crack the bleed nut on top of the rad (just enough to let air & then water leak out, DON'T unscrew it more than a turn !!) when bubbles stop coming out, re-tighten. Then let it cool and check level in the header tank, should be full to the brim, if not, top up and repeat above a couple of times.

The above uses the normal pressure in the system to force any air out and is a "one man" operation.
Works for me

[collins_sh]

Oh Definately bleed it again.

Is you van 1983/4 engine as is mine? in the older versions the thermostat housing cover faces down and there is a bleeding valve arrangement on the two main coolant pipes at a 'high point going to the rad.
this plastic valve can block up over time, if the pipes are held to this valve by jubilee clips try and get any air in the loop out through here, by lossening the clips and tightening up after etc.


don't ask me why VW didn't just send the hoses up the left side of the van direct to the rad? it would be a piece of cake to bleed if this was the case.

[ndcxs16]

Thanks to all that helped with advice. I have bleed twice now and gave her a run out today. The temp gauge sat at 2mm above the LED light.
As like most things I can't remember where it used to sit prior to me dumping the coolant but I think its where it should be. Plus the engine did not smell hot when I got home.
happier now