Subtitle: Sometimes you take a leap of faith... and land on your face.
Occasionally, we opt to tolerate little annoyances that others wouldn't. For example: a growling fresh air blower.
I intended to sell the recently purchased '89 1.6NA Jetta since it wasn't quite as nice as the '85 TD; so the growling fan had to go... I rekon a prospective buyer would find it too annoying (or be adversely affected to the prospective purchase).
I'm way too lazy to pull the entire dash in snowy January (no garage), so I yanked the blower by pulling on the right side of the dash hard enough to allow the blower to clear. Examination of the blower revealed the bushings beyond sloppy; they were barely existent... there seemed to be no logical reason that it could run at all. My call to the rewinder told me 6mm bushings were no longer available.
The fine folks in Auburn Hills have blowers, so my buddy and I hop-in for the 90min highway drive. It was about 20F, but I figured that pressure at 60mph would push air through the heater in the cabin.
All went well until 50 min into the drive... the water temperature gauge shot to the right and the light was blinking. No panic. I knew the belt was a bit loose when I left (I even had a new one at home, but was too lazy to install it before leaving). I took the next exit and stopped at a breakfast joint, so we could warm up and let the car cool down.
After breakfast, the staff were kind enough to give us a gallon of water in a jug. But, the expansion tank was full, so we got back on the road. Five minutes later, the gauge pegged again. I pulled to the roadside and called someone with internet access to get the location of a FLAPS and in 15min had a new 13mm wrench and a new belt installed. Back on the road, all was well.
Except... the gauge continued to rise and fall quite a bit. In Auburn Hills, the folks agreed with my assessment that there might be some air still trapped in the system. It didn't seem like the system was getting too hot... Maybe that would explain the nonexistent heat in the cabin too. We bought a recycled blower and misc parts, then headed to the computer megastore for fun.
Ten minutes later, the gauge pegged again! A quick stop on the shoulder to tighten the new belt (which had stretched significantly) did not seem to help, as we got a few more miles to the computer store with a pegged gauge.
We shopped for an hour and had lunch after that. With fingers crossed, we embarked on the return trip. All seemed fine until ten miles from home... Again, pegged/flashing. Almost like it was fine unless the speed got above 60mph. We pulled over to the shoulder, I checked the tank, no boiling coolant... checked the top hose, warm... checked the lower hose, cold. I didn't have my pocket IR thermometer, but things did not seem to be overheating and we were freezing cold. I waited ten minutes, then drove until I got to the local surface roadways, the I rolled the dice and drove surface streets to home.
*******
I should explain the the PO recently put in a new waterpump and hoses. I just put in a new radiator and tightened all the hose clamps that the PO left hanging loose. The PO also scrapped the A/C condenser, so the new radiator was virtually unobstructed. (The same PO that put in the new thermostat with RTV, but didn't replace the warped flange.) The guy said he was a mechanic... he also put in a new timing-belt, glowplugs and battery.
*******
I tore the whole cooling system out: the new NAPA water pump had a secure stamped impeller, the thermostat opened and closed in a pot of water on the stove @ ~155F, the sender changed resistance as it warmed and cooled in the pot. The gauge went to zero when disconnected and went to full-hot when shorted to ground. I put everything back together.
On the test drive all seemed well. Maybe the thermostat just got stuck and the test got it working... NOPE. After thirty minutes, the gauge pegged again, but this time I had my IR thermometer: outlet and expansion-tank both read 160F, upper radiator hose 150F, upper left radiator core 100F, lower hose 50F. I also had my ohmmeter: sender resistance 25ohms. Clearly, the sender was duff.
The next day I put in the new sender and the recycled blower. The gauge reads a little bit lower than my other rigs, but it is stable. The blower gives a steady flow without complaint.
It just figures... that once I got the quiet blower installed, the speedometer began to screech like a banshee from Hades.
Well, since you made it this far, you deserve something of possible use:
Measured with a cheap IR thermometer ~2" from water surface.
edit: repaired photo link
