I know that This subject is covered extensively elsewhere in the forum, but I wanted to pick the collective brains of the experts here as to what to do.
So here it is:
I bought the above over the internet (well my brother went to see it and paid over the money I had wired to him in Sweden, so I was hoping he would have used common sense, but now I'm not so sure!) The van is a '85 model, and via my brother, I was informed that the vehicle was effectively a 2 owner vehicle in the last 30 years the later having worked for vw for 6 years among others. My brother told me the guy he bought it from seemed a genuine guy.
So my brother pays the money and drives it back from the artic circle to Stockholm, around 600+ km in a day. After about 2 hours the water level light starts blinking. He phones the previous owner who suggests it might need bleeding but not to worry. He stops a bit later and the expansion tank is full and the header tank is nearly full. He continues to Stockholm with the light blinking all the way but reports it ran fine doing 110 kph on the flat and only slowing for hills (about 200,000 km on the clock).
Next day when we speak he tells me that he has toppled up the water level with about 750 mls. Then a couple of days later he is driving it and loads of steam coming from the vents and out the bottom. Off it goes to local vw dealer and about £500 and new water pump and thermostat its back - all sorted apparently.
I fly out and when I take it up the road its pouring out coolant. Next day (Monday) on drive to garage I can't see any leaks and its going well ( no blinking and temp within 11 - 1 o'clock) so we decide to do a further trip down the road (about 20 km). All is going well when again steam, temp through the roof, etc. Pull over and the short hose between the pump and block is split and not holding anything so call garage and get towed back. Wait 5 days for part from Germany, another £70 and its fixed.
Drive back to brothers house and light starts to blink. Back the next morning and they suggest it might be a faulty sensor or it could be a leak/weep around the sensor. Both levels look good. Off to start journey back to UK via Copenhagen and 20 km later sudden steam increase in temperature and total lack of coolant again! This time it's the top hose crossing over the back of the gearbox.
So here's my question, is it just unlucky, or is there too much pressure just blowing the coolant out at some point? The garage say they have done a compression test and it was all right, also tested for CO2 in coolant and that was negative.
Currently I'm back in England again and the van is in a carpark awaiting recovery to tow it back again to Stockholm - I'm getting towards the end of my tether and bank balance so any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks
