Club 80-90 Forums

club80-90 virgin here.

anyone good with electrics? the flashing red light on my 1.9DG westy for coolant level has come on. i've checked connections at the tank sensor and temp sensor and replaced both of these. checked connections in the little black box to left of engine. checked the connector on the dashboard and earth connections as well. it still flashes! what is going on?

Mate I know this doesnt help but Im having the same problems and I feel Ive tried everything...............if you find out how to fix it let me know Im desparate !!

Mark

Hi,
Sounds like you done it right I had the same problem and it turned ot to be a combination of a dodgy earth connection and the level sensor.

TTFN Kris

ps Check the sensor first, by shorting it out, then with a AVO
The earths are on two crowns that are found behind the glove box on the left hand side, release the screws that hold the fuses in place to gain access.

pps Have fun, give them all a good clean and get the vaseline out

I take it that the coolant level is correct???

If so, then another place to check for bad connection is the main wiring loom to dash pod plug. If you pull off the pod cover, and look down you will see a white oblong plug with 10 or so wires. One being your coolant level wire. This plug is notorious for working loose, sometimes a wiggle will fix, sometimes you need to separate the connector, and with a watchmakers screwdriver or similar open up the little prong connectors so that they grip on to the circuit board, and give a decent connection.

Sounds complicated, but only takes minutes.

check the earth crown behind the fuse box mine wasx covered in white residue when I was having electric issues, also since I changed my flexi pcb back to the original one from the diesel one I purchased from ebay I do sometimes get strange displays in the dash pod, what happens if you simply bypass the level sensor with a bit of wire.

I'm also having a problem with this. Doesn't seem to make any difference if the sensor connection is shorted out with wire, plugged in or taken out. I'm going to try the earths and the white plug behind the dash now, I'll let you know if I have any luck. Yes, my coolant level is fine and yes, it's really annoying!

Donald.

donald, you have a wiring or connection prob further forward than the engine bay! if shorting it out changes nothing, it points to broken wire, broken or bad connection, as they say above, back of dash pod, or multiplug near fusebox or earth crown....... or dash pod itsself!

just a footnote!
is the temp gauge working correctly, as the flashing light also takes signal from the temp sender too, so might not just be the low level warning you are getting......check temp sender

Thanks for your ideas Steve, gives me a bit more to investigate. Where is the temp sensor fitted? (Hows that for a newbie question)

Cheers,
Donald.

on a '85, could be late or early water sys..........

if its late(all plastic parts,)the thermostat housing n/s/f of engine its in the bottom half of the thermostat housing,twin connection mini spade plug , facing the front of the van, not the one facing the wheel

if its early ( 2" rubber pipes running round the n/s of the engine bay to the front o/s) its in the end of the thermostat housing which is just behind the water pump and pulley, single spade connection. Yellow/red wire

Ok, short of completely dismantling the earth pods, I gave what i could reach a bit of a clean up and replaced a couple of loose earth spades. I checked the white connector behind the dash and made sure all the wee connectors were in good nick.

The flashing light of doom still comes on no matter what i do it seems. The only time it doesn't come on is when I pull out the white multi plug connector.

I found the water temp sensor, but I don't know how to check if it is the culprit - makes no difference if it is connected or not.

Rapidly running out of ideas... next on my list is to completely remove the earth pods and renew all the connections.

Any help appreciated,
Donald.

Another thought, what if I run a new wire from the water level sensor and connect it to the white plug behind the dash?

How to test coolant level led part 1 and 2 later in thread>

Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow...

Actually, I'm now thinking of getting myself a multimeter, though they're a bit of a dark art to me, maybe I should stick to a test bulb, that's about the level of my my expertise with motor electrics.

Thanks for all the info.
Donald.

Get a meter, they are simple to use with a few minutes of help. Pull a relay out, look on the back and you will see the connection number on the base. From there you can identify which of the vacant connections is the one you need to insert the multimeter probe into. If you get stuck, seems as though a few have this problem, will post pics of what to do.

You have pictures?

It's a pity you're so far away. The ideal thing would be to have someone show me - that's the way to learn.

Thanks,
Donald.