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Date:         Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:54:45 -0600
Reply-To:     Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject:      Re: Was Can you run without coolant...Now How Badly Can You Abuse
              a WBX? (Very long)
Comments: To: Andrew Martin <ramblinvan@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <A6C523E00C3E4403B4A72CAF59D98953@agmnewbox>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The real issue is that no matter the vehicle, we Americans drive / ride / pedal it until it breaks then we whine about the collateral damage.

And in that light the Olds is far superior because with a mechanic, $500 and a few days you can be back on the road with new head gaskets!

Not so with a Vanagon.....

I just picked up a 1975 BMW R75/6 motorcycle for $750. The owner quit riding it in 1990 because the clutch started slipping and refused to have it fixed because the dealership wanted to charge him $400!!!

Tom www.towercooler.com

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of Andrew Martin Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 6:38 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Was Can you run without coolant...Now How Badly Can You Abuse a WBX? (Very long)

John,

Could you work up a THAR SHE BLOWS! upgrade kit to replace the Vanagon coolant light?

If it's not too much trouble, I'd like mine to have Patrick Stewart's/Capt. Ahab's voice. And when the coolant tank is bone dry he should repeat "DRINK AND SWEAR" over and over but only until the police arrive.

That would be so cool, so to speak...

Andrew

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of John Bange Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 3:52 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Was Can you run without coolant...Now How Badly Can You Abuse a WBX? (Very long)

> > "Rubber Headgaskets"? What were they thinking when they built that? >

I think it's a fundamental difference in philosophy of Automobile Ownership between we North Americans and Germans, a sort of "diligent maintenance" vs "fix it when it breaks" mindset. It seems to me that an automotive engineer here would look at the waterboxer design and say "What happens when they use hose water instead of 50:50 coolant and you get corrosion, or worse, when there's a coolant leak and they drive it a little after that?" I imagine the German engineer would look at him with bug-eyed astonishment and say, "WHY would anyone DO that?!?" Even the base model Vanagon is heavily instrumented compared to (say) an 82 Oldsmobile with nothing but a TEMP idiot light that really ought to read THAR SHE BLOWS. A coolant level sensor is essentially UNHEARD OF for domestic cars of that vintage, but VW engineers clearly felt it was necessary for catching problems BEFORE they cripple the vehicle.

> Does anyone know why they never brought the South African inline motor to > world wide production for the vanagon?

I believe the SA inline powered Transporter was developed BECAUSE there was no longer world-wide production of the Transporter and the wasserboxer was NLA. VWSA probably looked at the T4 and said "Nah... I think we'll just update the T3" and gave it a new engine, bigger side windows, and a new dashboard.

-- John Bange


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