Coolant and Heating flashing red light on dash

Basic operation.

The light will flash when you start your engine for a few seconds this is normal. It should then go out and stay out unless either your coolant level is low or your van is over heating. However there are several other faults that can make it come on incorrectly. A quick check whilst you are driving is to put the heating on if you have heat coming up front then you most likely still have coolant going around the system. Look in the rear view mirror for steam! More often than not it is due to the level sensor in your header tank has become gunged up and is incorrectly thinking that your header tank is empty. Remove the two pronged sensor from the tank and give the prongs a clean

syncrosimon

There are two other causes for that little light to blink that I have experienced. 1. An electrical short circuit. This happened to me when an ill fitting battery was shorting on the battery lid. The red light would flash intemitently and the temp gauge increase in temp very quickly whilst shorting. 2. The main wiring harness multi pin connector to the dash pod comes a little loose. on later models this can also sound the buzzer of doom when nothing else is wrong, but should also effect other dash led's by making them not work. A gentle wiggle should correct, on my lhd you can reach this plug from the driving seat by sticking your hand up underneath, i cant remember if this is the same on a rhd.

Hope this may be of help as it is not always the obvious.

The engine wont be overheating if the needle doesn't say it is. The fan should come on when the needle is a needles width to the right of the little red light. (assuming that the gauge is working) The temp needle should start fully to the cold left side, then rise over about 4 miles to the middle, where in normal conditions it stays rock steady. Ticking over for long periods will require fan action such as in your traffic jam to cool the engine, but should be shown in a slight rise in the needle position. When the fan comes on you should be able to see the needle drop, a gentle rev to get the coolant flowing round faster at that point will cool the engine down faster. or you can put your heater on full for a time. This will keep the engine cool even if your main fan isn't working

Mocki

you need to remember that the light takes its signal from the temp sender for over heating, AND from the level sender in the headertank for low coolant, the rad fan is connected to neither of these and has a seperate sender switch in the rad itself, so is totally independent...

also check connections in the electrics box in the engine bay, where there is yet another junction for the gauge and the red light of confusion.....

Header tank cap check

just something to check with the cap screwed tight on the bottle when the coolant is cold blow/suck on the take off pipe. you should not be able to blow into the system or suck out. if you can your cap is faulty it needs to seal so the coolant can pressurise and not boil! non sealing will cause fluid loss and so can cause the fault you have with no apparent coolant loss!