Date:         Sun, 11 Dec 2005 22:15:18 -0800
Reply-To:     Christopher <chris@MIRAIUSA.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Christopher <chris@MIRAIUSA.COM>
Organization: Mirai USA
Subject:      Cooling Issues & starter woes
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

A couple of fun issues I am dealing with:

(i) Last Wednesday a transport truck forgot about the 'stop' part of
stop and go traffic on I-405. He wacked into the car behind me and
pushed it into the back of my '89 Westy. I pulled over, turned off
the motor and got out to check the wreckage. Seems like the car
that got pushed into me took the brunt of it. My tow bar and rear
bumper took a direct hit and it seems like the tow bar is bent and
the bumper is pushed in far enough so that the side wrap around
parts scrapped into my rear wheel wells. After the information
exchange and a visit from the state patrol, I got back into my van
to take off but it wouldn't start. I ended up getting it towed to
Bow Wow in Lynnwood.

Doug MacAulay is the guy working on it and he told me there was
something wrong with the starter. $392 to fix that - included labor.

He said it might be related to the accident but he wasn't sure. It was
working
fine right up until I got wacked. Anyone ever heard of something
like this or have a theory here? The adjuster that came out mumbled
something about not covering a broken starter as that couldn't have
been due to the accident.

Since I had my van in, I asked Doug to change the coolant. So
Friday rolls around and he calls me to tell me the sad story about
how he ripped apart the cooling lines that run from the front of the
van to the rear and that the connections are all corroded out. In
fact he said he wouldn't be able to put them back together. They
will run about $450 to replace + labor and the one on the side of
the block should be done as well. It comes to another $1100.

I'm a little upset that they didn't warn me about the possibilities
of the issues with the coolant pipes before they ripped into it. Has
anyone else had experience with this shop? Good or bad, I'm just
looking for any opinions. Go Westy has a kit I discovered, for
$49.00 that allows one to replace all the fittings. Anyone used
this?

Appreciate your help and comments.

Cheer,

Chris
'89 Westy
Seattle