Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (August 2002, week 4)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Wed, 28 Aug 2002 11:15:49 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Spare Parts List - Input
Comments: cc: lchase@ATTGLOBAL.NET
In-Reply-To:  <Pine.SUN.3.96.1020828102718.211A-100000@grex.cyberspace.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> Current plan is to replace existing parts that seem to be fine > with new and use the originals for spares. > > I personally wouldn't do this, unless you have time to drive the van > around for a couple weeks before taking it out. You know the current > parts are good, because the van's running on them -- why take a chance on > a bunch of replacements you can't be sure about?

I agree, to a certain extent. You'd probably be relatively safe to replace common tune up items, filters, etc. (and even then, drive the van for a couple of days after doing the work). But beyond that I can't say I'd go hog wild replacing what isn't broken.

> I think an alternator may be over-cautious... The ECU also strikes me as overkill.

I agree. Neither is a particularly common failure item.

There is no way you can plan for every possible breakdown, and Murphy's Law suggests that the part that fails will be the one you don't bring. Many of the parts you're thinking of bringing are not easy roadside-repair parts anyway, so if you need to replace them you're likely to be waylaid for a day or so anyway. In that much time, you could have ordered the part via next-day-air and gotten it as-needed rather than bringing a ton of "what if" parts with you. Even on a Friday, we can usually ship a part via Express Mail (which has 7-day delivery) and have it to you over the weekend. Only if the breakdown happened on a Saturday (in which case you couldn't order the part until Monday) would you be held up for more than a day or so. That being the case, I can't say I'd fill my van with a ton of spares other than simple stuff like a spare fuel filter or belts. Not that I wouldn't love to sell you a van full of parts. :-)

Of course, there is always a chance that the part that fails will be backordered or unavailable, which could be a real hassle. But the sorts of parts you're planning to bring (wheel bearings, water pumps, etc.) are not the sorts of parts that go on backorder very often at all. More commonly it's obscure (low-demand) or dealer-only parts that have spotty availability - not the sort of parts that you'd be likely to bring along anyway.

In my personal experience, the most common failure has been in the cooling system (i.e. a hose splitting). Since there are literally dozens of hoses, you can't reasonably expect to bring them all with you, and there may be some that could take a few days to get or even be backordered. Inspect the cooling system extremely thoroughly before leaving, and preventatively replace any soft, cracking, or remotely suspect hoses.

Also, make sure to get an AAA Plus membership. In fact, you may even want to get a couple of different auto club memberships to play it safe. Many limit you to a few tows a year, and if you'll be on the road for a solid year you might want the extra security of a relatively unlimited number of tows. I have an AAA Plus membership and a AutoVantage membership. The former allows up to something like 80 miles of towing per incident, but is limited to 4 uses per year. The latter covers only short tows but has no useage limit (or if it does, I've never hit it). I use the latter for short tows when needed, and save my four AAA Plus uses for long distance tows if I'm stranded far from home (or far from the nearest shop that's ever worked on a Vanagon). You could even use the short-distance tow to get you off the road to somewhere safe where you could decide your options (even to the nearest campground), and then the longer AAA tow to get to a specialist if the problem turned out to be something you couldn't fix yourself. This could come in particularly useful if you broke down in the middle of the night, where you had to get the van off the road right away but you couldn't really assess your options until morning.

- Ron Salmon The Bus Depot, Inc. (215) 234-VWVW www.busdepot.com

_____________________________________________ Toll-Free for Orders by Part # 1-866-BUS-DEPOT


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.