Date:         Tue, 15 Jun 2004 22:22:32 -0400
Reply-To:     Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject:      Blown engine: Yet another update (long)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

For those of you who have been following my misadventure, I went by the
dealer's shop today and took some pictures.  I don't have a web page to post
them on, but I can describe what I found.  The piston connecting rod that
was sticking out of the top of the engine had no signs of ever having had a
place to put connecting rod bolts.  That's how tore up it was.  The hole in
the top of the engine was about 4 by 6 inches big.  I pulled the dipstick
and it showed that the engine was about two-thirds full of fairly clean
oil.  Suspecting that the dealer might have filled it up after the fact, I
drained the oil into one of those fairly flat containers that has a big
pan-type funnel on it that was yellow.  The oil was fairly dark, not as
clean as I would have expected had it been just put in and never run in the
engine.  It was, of course, full of small metal bits and pieces.  I pulled
the oil filter and took a hacksaw and cut it in half.  It was full of dark
oil, though the filter material was fairly clean.

Backing up a bit, I just showed up at the dealership with no appointment and
asked for the key to my van and to speak to the service manager.  He met me
around back where the van was with the technician that had worked on the van
and I proceeded to take out a bunch of stuff I had in there from camping the
previous weekend.  The technician allowed as to how he'd never seen one of
these engines do that before, but he was younger than me and they don't get
that many Vanagons in there.  I had one of my colleagues with me, not for
intimidation (he's about 450 pounds), but because he's jovial, observant,
and a good listener.  He and the service manager talked and watched me take
stuff out.  Then I got out the cameras, one digital, one analog, in case
digital pix weren't acceptable should anything go to court.  I took the
first couple of pictures, then the service manager reached over and grabbed
the biggest piece of loose metal and pulled it out and said that I should
get a picture of that too.  He offered one or two other suggestions as I
proceeded to document the mileage, the fact that the oil pressure warning
light actually worked, drained the oil, and pulled the filter.  When he saw
that I was having trouble cutting the filter, he put his foot on one end of
it to steady it for me.

All in all, the service manager was very friendly, cooperative, helpful,
professional, and seemed genuinely concerned with my predicament, but in the
manner of someone who felt my pain but couldn't do anything to assuage it,
not like somebody who has done something wrong and is on the defense.  This
was new for me.  Under the old ownership, which changed about a year ago, I
had grown quite accustomed to upset customers being argued with, constant
technician shortages, and a multitude of excuses for why things wouldn't
work right.  The new ownership had also completely re-done the waiting area,
service counter, parts counter and the way that they take your vehicle.  Now
you pull up to the service bay door, and check in at the front desk.  The
parking lot was not overflowing with vehicles waiting to be serviced (a
first), and there was no line of people waiting to be checked in (another
first).  The check-in clerk said they were trying something new to see if
they could keep people from having to wait.  It was apparently working.

Back to the meat of the matter, I also sent some of the digital pictures up
to Bob Donalds to get his opinion on the matter.  He basically said that the
amount of damage suffered by the engine wouldn't likely have happened in the
two miles that I drove the van after leaving the dealership.  We talked
about quite a few other things, who rebuilt the engine before, how I had
maintained the vehicle and such, but everything tended to lead me to the
conclusion that I'm going to be buying my own engine.

Sigh . . .
Marc Perdue