No pressure

[brett at netacc.net (Brett Van Sprewenburg)]

At 10:26 PM -0400 5/31/05, John S. Lagnese wrote:
>Hi,
>     My 87 16V Scirocco isn't building up any pressure in the 
>radiator. The temperature goes up past the led, but no ressure. It 
>also has just a trickle going into the reservoir tank. The water 
>pump must be working, I have plenty of heat.
>     It has just had a new water pump installed. The thermostat has 
>also been replaced. The radiator has also been flushed.
>     The water pump died last September, it was leaking like a sieve. 
>It sat all winter with no coolant.
>     Any ideas? I have had it out at a local garage because I really 
>haven't got the time during the school year.
>Thanks,
>John


Seems like a typical air trapped in the system problem.  Several 
people over the years have has a
variety of different ideas on how to take care of this.  One that has 
always worked for me is to
drill a small hole or two in the thermostat at the flat area outside 
the "mechanism" valve.
This allows any air trapped on one side to escape more easily, so 
that the coolant can
contact the thermostat.  Without that contact, the valve will not 
open, likely causing
the situation  you have.  Opening up the bottom of the waterpump, 
where the tstat is
located, is easy (2 10mm bolts), but messy because most of the 
coolant shoots out at you. :/
Get a clean bucket to catch it all so that you can reuse it.  I 
believe an 1/8" hole would
do the trick here.

If you don't want to try this, a less invasive maneuver is to try and 
get the reservoir
tank to be at the highest point, and the tstat at the lowest.  This 
involves jacking up the
rear and drivers side front a bit....then running the motor.  This 
might have the effect of
moving the air bubble, especially if you help it along by squeezing 
the hoses.    Another
variant is to open the hose at the top of the rad a bit (just to let 
out trapped air) and
combine with hose squeezing the running engine (sounds like fun, eh?)

==Brett