Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:09:07 -0700
Reply-To: Gerald Masar <azsun99@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Gerald Masar <azsun99@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: High Mileage Maintenance Concerns
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Hi John,
In your last paragraph, you say you believe in preventative maintenance, yet you say
you ran the A/C pump (?), water pump and alternator to failure. That sounds more like
the "don't fix it if it ain't broke" school.
I know you are a regular reader of this forum, so you know the items that come up over
and over again, including THE REAR WHEEL BEARINGS. They should be serviced, they do
get serviced and some who have done it have written up good 'how-to's'. So, any good
maintenance plan includes all the basic stuff like oil and filter changes, tune-ups,
etc., all of the rubber items that we know have a limited life on these ancient vans,
like tires, belts and hoses, all of the plastic parts that deteriorate from heat and
age and anything that moves round and round, up and down or back and forth, that was
lubed from the factory.
Do we all do all of these things? Probably not, but we do what we can or what we can
afford to pay someone else to do or we wait until it breaks.
My '90 Westy has 174K miles. The heads were re-built and re-sealed 50K miles ago. I
preemptively replaced, or serviced, the water pump, alternator, most of the coolant
system hoses and many other things. I paid someone else ( a lot!) to do the CV joints,
front AND rear bearings and other things, and I have list(s) of things waiting to be
done.
You and I are about in the same age group (old), so I understand where you are coming
from. For more detailed maintenance ideas, start with the maint. manual that came with
the van, look in Bentley, and the Haynes Manual has a good maintenance schedule. And
from time to time, list members have published their own lists.
In short, my time at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere is worth roughly
77,000 bazilion Molvanian dollars a minute. I LOVE being in the middle of nowhere, I
just don't want to work on my van (much) while I am there.
How much is your time worth?
Jerry
> My Burgundy '88 GL now has 160,000 miles on it. I've tried diligently to
> give'er good maintenance so everything works pretty good at the moment.
> However, there are still some maintenance things I have concerns about.
>
> The ol' girl has the 160,000 on the body, but only 60,000 on the engine
> since a complete long block rebuild. This means that all the bolt-on
> items that an engine must have - Alt, Gen, PS Pump, FI, AC Pump, AFM,
> and other stuff - has 160,000 miles worth of wear and tear. In addition,
> there are other things that have that same high mileage wear - like rear
> wheel bearings, which unlike front wheel bearing, never get serviced
> because of how they are installed. I'm sure there is other stuff there
> as well.
>
> My concern is, what of those high mileage, un-maintained/un-serviced
> items, should there be concern about. And which should be included in a
> more routine service plan.
>
> So far, I have run the AC pump to failure. the Alternator to failure,
> the Water Pump to failure( though there was only 60,000 miles on it),
> and there may be other things on their way to failure. I believe in
> Preventive Maintenance as a big deterrent to unplanned roadside
> inconveniences. And the good service and dependability of my van says
> I'm right. But I still have concerns about all this un-serviced stuff.
>
> What say you, Volks?
>
> Regards,
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver x2
>
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