Date:         Fri, 21 May 2010 06:51:51 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon Woes
In-Reply-To:  <12398.5663.qm@web51002.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 11:05 PM, levi hawkins <b1levi@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Ah. So, what you're saying is you like your vanagon.
> Yeah, me too.
>
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> --- On Thu, 5/20/10, Arkady Mirvis <arkadymirvis@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> From: Arkady Mirvis <arkadymirvis@GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Vanagon Woes
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Date: Thursday, May 20, 2010, 9:59 PM
>
> One has to look at Vanagon from under to understand why Germans lost the WW
> II. Nothing made in Germany is simple. When I do maintenance and even minor
> repair on my 1991 diesel Jetta and 1987 Westy my frustrations are expressed
> in words one can hear a mile away during the hottest hours of portuguese
> day. Access to practically everything is limited at least.
>

   Since this is Friday and some off Vanagon posts are tolerated..So here is
some...

   You should be glad your German car is a Vanagon and not a Porsche.  Talk
about a maintenance nightmare! Porsches are the Prime Example of how to make
things very very intricate and complex for no apparent reason and then
bury that complexity under many other layers of mechanisims that must be
first removed to access whatever you need to reach.  There are dozens of
'systems' that are interdependent, too, for no apparent logical
reason...meaning you might eventually trace a problem with your ignition to
a relay that controls another relay that might be hooked to a faulty sensor
in say....the tire stem or the rear wiper warning light
relay...Un-farking-believable!
  The Porsche 928 Factory Manual is contained in a meagre 14 full sized
volume set of books.  There are appx. 80 Bosch relays arranged in an Arcane
way in the "power supply center" (what would be the fuse box in a Vanagon)
and that 'lives' behind and below a secondary heater, just under the
airconditioned glove box...(the heater often leaks into the fuse
panel...causing +really difficult+ electrical glitches to show up.  The
wiring diagrams are contained in 3 (maybe 4) full 60-page plus volumes of
the Factory Manual...
  Porsche dealers will not even accept a Porsche 928 for repair...If you
need new sparkplugs in a P. Boxster, you must remove the motor to install
them.  When one of my 928 racecar motors broke a (brand new) timing belt--I
ended up with 28 bent valves...at about $60 per valve...Try getting 4 cams
properly timed on the same belt, too...That's fun...
  In order to even look under a Porsche you need to first jack it up...after
you figure out where the jack may be hidden and how to work the 'marvelousy
engineered' device...Then you must remove the 'belly pans'...installed with
about 30 fasteners of widely assorted type and obscure location...I
especially loved the 7mm ones that took a 1/4 drive deep socket on a 6"
extension and a universal after you found them in their tunnels..45 minutes
to an hour just to get a look under the vehicle..Did I mention they are
notorious oil squirters, too?


  Just sayin..
.Yah, the Vanagon has some quirks but it's a pleasure compared to the
P-cars..

  Don Hanson