Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 03:38:35 -0700
Reply-To: patrice b <prb@TELEVAR.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: patrice b <prb@TELEVAR.COM>
Subject: Re: IS THE LIST GETTING SMALLER?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hello, Volks. Hey--I have just enlarged the list by a count of one ;-)
By way of introduction I'm Patrice, I'm in central WA state, and I bought
my first VW a year ago-- an '85 Vanagon 1.9L
...a month ago I got my hands on a borrowed copy of the Bentley 'big green
book' and, like most people I have read here, am less than completely
enthused about directions in there...
Which makes me very grateful to have found this list with y'all! The
archives offered hours of good reading today as I gear up to have a
non-VW-specific mechanic do a coolant flush for me in a couple days. I
live in the middle of nowhere (well, actually I'm about 30 miles from the
center of nowhere...) and getting to good VW mechanics is something that
happens during trips
(I've been fortunate to break down in good places a couple
times...Missoula, MT-- Van saw the cutest little expansion tank there in a
shop window and just HAD to have it. What can you do? Say no to them?
vans...gotta love 'em....)
I have had Pentosin coolant shipped to me, as well as a bleeder valve (mine
is rigged since part of the plastic nipple in the smallest hose broke off
recenly), but I'm on wetlands with a water table 6 feet down in places, so
I'm not going to be trying to do this messy job myself. But all the various
ways people have drained and burped their vanagons will be passed along to
Local Mechanic, since I can't imagine someone just opening that thing and
guessing all that stuff, no matter how good a general mechanic they are.
Sheesh!
So, nice to be here. Sorry to hear that things get a little tense
sometimes in the day-to-day here, but not surprised. I've been part of a
few net communities for the last 6 years, and there's always a couple of
apples in the bunch. I just hope some of the people getting frustrated
with whatever recent situation(s) were alluded to in the first missive sent
to me by the List will accept my hello and my thanks for their having been
here and their helping provide a place for people like me to show up.
--Patrice
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