Date:         Fri, 15 Aug 2003 14:40:35 EDT
Reply-To:     ChrisW8502@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Chris Wright <ChrisW8502@AOL.COM>
Subject:      A Vanagon mystery?  Please Help
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Hello list,

I have a real mystery involving my 1987 Vanagon Syncro's odometer going from
100,000 some odd miles to 200,000 some odd miles in less then 24 hours. I sat
there and watched as the far left numeral "1" slowly turned to "2" as I drove.
Before I knew it my Syncro had exactly 100,000 miles more than it had the day
before?!? Very strange... This happened a few years ago and during that time
while getting it serviced at a VW shop I explained the problem and the VW tech
said he could fix it for $300 and me leaving it there for the day. However as
the tradition with my past 4 years I was too busy to deal...  Now however I
have a buddy who works for a local private VW shop who is helping me iron out
all the problems my Syncro is having while we are both taking a few days off
from work, but then we both have to go back to work and I work states away from
him... So if it doesn't get done now it might never get done (I have until
around the middle of next week).... We took the instrument cluster out and took a
look at the odometer. There doesn't seem to be ANYTHING wrong with it. All
the gears seem totally intact, all the "groves" seem intact, no scratch marks or
cracks, and the odometer itself works fine (no symptoms of the odometer
freeze caused by setting the tripometer while the car is moving...). We were both
shocked as we were expecting to see something clearly wrong, especially since
the VW tech a couple of years back had made it seem like this was a common
problem that can be solved through VW "easily" ( well easily for $300...). This is
something that I really want to fix and I don't have the cash to take it to a
VW shop. Right now I have a fairly knowledgeable VW mechanic/friend who can
help me with this but we really need the help of the more experienced on the
Vanagon list.  Any and all efforts would be most appreciated!

Thank you for reading this.
Chris
1987 Vanagon Syncro 132,000 / 232,000.....

PS: This list is invaluable to Vanagon owners. Thank you all so much!!! I
haven't participated for years simply because I am not that knowledgeable with
cars but I listen well and have been very grateful for the time each person has
put into this list allowing myself and others to search the archives whenever
a question comes up (of which I have found no answers to this problem with my
odometer hence my current posting...)