Club 80-90 Forums

Mine used to sit at 12 o clock , I changed the thermostat, waterpump and a couple of hoses , flushed the system through and used correct coolant at the correct mix . It now sits at 1 o clock. The fan has cut in but only when sat in traffic on a very warm day . The needle swung unnervingly over to the right before it cut in . Once on the move again temp dropped to normal very quickly.

You can fit a different thermostat with a slightly lower threshold. Obviously the state of the radiator plays a fairly major part in how quickly the water is cooled too. My old thermostat kept my temperature just above cold (which I didn't mind too much) but the new one pushes the boundaries of my own safe zone so I have a chicken switch for exceedingly heavy traffic. The fan works as it should but the switch is a fail-safe really.

Common?
The cooling system on a T3 is unique.
There are few garages that understand it.
So folks that rely on mechanics come here when they can't fix it.
So it crops up a lot.

The temp gauge sender is at the front (ie behind the thermostat housing when viewed from the rear of the van.) Our van had slightly increasing temperatures over the years ... solved by replacing the radiator.

Ian

Hi all.
Just an update.

We've stabilised the issue I think.

I took a close look over everything we'd done and revisited the basics - I found a block in the bleed ring plus the dalek needed replacement. The correct sender had been changed. For safety's sake I also had the tech do a sniff / CO test which came back fine.
The outcome is that the van now runs a little warmer than before, but does not reach the heights of before.

Lesson learned: sometimes your decent tech might not have the inn depth experience of the idiosynchrises of the VW!

Thanks for all your help.

Glad you got it sorted, and your sniff test came back clear

leggydaz wrote:I removed the bleed ring tonight and cleaned out each "T" etc. One was indeed near blocked.

(Bold by me)
Another one to add to my list.

Hey Ralf (et al), do you want to see that picture again

ooo yes!!!!

The Picture!! The picture!!

(its THAT pic that I think of every time I list the bleed ring as a potential cause!)

Em
xx