Date:         Fri, 29 Aug 2003 10:43:20 -0700
Reply-To:     Mark Tuovinen <mst@AK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Tuovinen <mst@AK.NET>
Subject:      Favorite repair shop in the SF Bay Area?
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

We just bought a 87 Westy Syncro in Berkeley and had a shop called European Motors do a prebuyers inspection. I would NOT recommend them. Among other things they claimed that the A/C was working great and had been converted to R-134A, it had not, nor did it have any refrigerant at all. They tried to sell me a front brake job claiming the pads were too worn to even get to LA never mind make it home to ALaska. I had them rechecked in Seattle and the dealer said they were fine. They also missed the leaking rear heater core and that the front heater valve was stuck open so that you had heat constantly. They claimed that the valve covers were leaking, they aren't. They never mentioned that it had the wrong anti-freeze. There are several other items that they missed including leaking transmission input seal and rear main seal, alternator bearings going bad etc.

I suggest that you look for a shop that has Vanagons there regularly. Familiarize yourself with vanagon idiosyncracies and ask them about the problems and how to repair them. Ask whether they use OEM grade parts or generic aftermarket stuff. Find out how much experience their technicians have with Vanagons like yours. Good luck.

Mark