Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:15:41 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: major fuel leak
In-Reply-To: <1w80y9he.fsf@cs.indiana.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
It is a weak design considering that it's about fuel,
And that plastic parts 'give up' after 15+ years, , get brittle, crack,
break etc.
'cost' .........that's the whole thing.
And VW's are built to offer a lot for the cost.
You can even see parts that were metal on the 1.9 wbxr become plastic ones
on the 2.1, ones that deteriorate with age and heat.
And yes, on something like fuel.............you'd think they might stay more
with metal than plastic.
Just take that firewall fuel fitting thing on waterboxers, no real need for
that part on the van, it's plastic, right above the starter etc.
And forget ye not this - engineers, especially German ones, design things to
be perfect when they ARE perfect, with no lee way sometimes for thing to be
off somewhat .
A perfect and glaring example : 83 to 85 1.9 waterboxer with AC.
A coolant hose goes THOUGH, as in 'within' the AC belt.
First,..............think of one other car with a coolant hose going
*through* an accessory belt. I have worked on just everything there is
almost, and I can not think of one other example of a hose going through an
accessory belt.
And............if the AC belt gets loose, it rubs and flaps on a coolant
hose that's about 1 to 1.5 inches away.
So you could loose all your coolant, and fry your engine, just from an
accessory belt for a non-critical system, one not even being used at the
time even...........
What were they not thinking ??
Allan here asked, wisely, why didn't they just put inline 4 gas engines in
instead of coming up with the waterpuker, I mean waterboxer engine ?? They
already had the diesel inline 4 in a vanagon even.
Good question !
All I have is .............they wanted to stay with opposed 4 cylinder
aluminum engine that the vw van has had since day one,
Or cost factors. And those simple little inline 4's sure don't look
expensive to make to me.
But, like those fuel system plastic parts........two main factors I see for
doing it that way, is cost of production, and this mentality that either the
van is going to be recycled by 10 years time, or that it'll always go to the
dealer for service and they'll sell you a 700 dollar job of new plastic
fittings and so forth...............or as I keep seeing.........they only
make them to be right when they ARE right.
Last line................there is nothing like stuff that Just Works, and
works long term with nary a glitch hardly ever. Low power or not that
great fuel mileage isn't even that hard to put up with if it just works
forever.
( btw, guy in France tells me diesel is around $ 6 US and gallon, and gas
$ 7.50 per US gallon there now , and our dollar has shrunk a lot lately too
of course) .
Scott
www.turbovans.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Allan Streib
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 6:47 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: major fuel leak
"Mike" <mbucchino@charter.net> writes:
> This has been a problem on both of my most recent Vanagons. Some
> people have made up a brass tee fitting to replace the plastic, but
> I managed to repair mine. By reinforcing inside with tubing, epoxy
> and wrapping the outside with tape to hold it together until the
> epoxy set, it made a strong, lasting repair. My vent and filler
> grommets were fine; I just cleaned and lubed them with silcone
> grease. I reinstalled it all back together and it hasn't leaked or
> come apart in over a year. I found the repair kits to be overly
> expensive and lacking some key pieces. IIRC, VW no longer sells
> some of the vent pieces; maybe the overflow valves?.
The whole design seems ill-conceieved and prone to leaking in a
rollover. I mean if you are in a wreck and your van tips over do you
want nothing more than an old rubber grommet and a few bits of brittle
plastic keeping 10+ gallons of gasoline contained?
I can see the need for cross-ventilation between the two "lobes" of
the tank, but in my view they should have brazed or welded a steel
pipe across there at the factory. The plastic tubing and fittings, in
a place that's pretty much inaccessible to routine inspection, is just
a bad design. IMHO.
Allan
--
1991 Vanagon GL
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