Date:         Sat, 28 Oct 2000 14:45:20 -0700
Reply-To:     John McLean <jaymac@INTERNETCDS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John McLean <jaymac@INTERNETCDS.COM>
Subject:      Re: coolant question
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

> Hi,
> I've been searching through the archives, but i still can't get a handle on
> a simple thing.
> My VW mechanic told me recently that i can buy any coolant and just mix it
> with %50 water. He usually uses a green kind. Didn't mention anything about
> Phosphate free.  Am i missing something?
> Should i bother going to a VW dealship (yuck) and getting some coolant? I
> have what i think is a little leak that's burning off somewhere, so i am
> needing to refill more than usual sadly.
>
> Don't mean to start up a thread on this all over again. Feel free to email
> me personally if you think it'll irritate the list to talk about this again.
>
> thanks!
>
> ~KaReN~

Hi KaReN,

Color doesn't matter.   Phosphate free is what you are looking for.
Look at your rear heater core.   I have been loosing about a pint a month for
over a year then
suddenly the loss increased just before I noticed my carpet saturated.  When I
investigated further I was
suprised to find my Bentley manual also saturated about 50 pages from the
bottom.   It had been sitting under my
back seat on top of a folded shop rag.

I have stopped the leak temporarily by turning the heater off at the control
valve.

I went into the archives before starting into this and found some good advise.
One good one was the suggestion to modify
the rear heater shroud to prevent having to remove the rear seat/bed more than
once.   This is real obvious when you
get there but you would never think of it otherwise.   This particular situation
is a stereotypical example of  thoughtless
oversight (or sinister intent) on the part of automotive engineers

Good luck,

John McLean   87  Vanagon  GL    (210,000 miles)