Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:22:00 -0800
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: The deal about the Tail Light Fairy
In-Reply-To: <00e901cbe125$fa725eb0$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
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I hope the VW "Tail-light warning system" is not so stupid as the Porsche
one that was in my "Flagship of the Porsche line" the 928...What a
stinker! Almost every stupid warning system in the car was
'problematic'...to put it kindly. For instance, the tail light warning
system....It would not let you start the car with a tail light out....and
it thought the bulb was no good if it detected a different draw....so every
bulb had to be exactly the same make, sometimes even the same age......If
you were in, say, Tonapah, Nv and a tail light burned out, of course you
couldn't find a 'proper' German bulb to put in....and a gas station
replacement caused the computer to give you a "Warning!" and a no start
condition. Until you swapped all the bulbs, in pairs, and got sets with
all the same exact draw....Of course, the bulbs were pretty rare and usually
a station would have....3, not the 4 you needed....It took me about a year
to find that little factoid in the 14 Volumes(!) of shop manuals I had on
that one vehicle...
Checking the lights on a Vanagon....I do it. I like doing things on my
own, not having the vehicle tell me...I've spent waay more time and energy
fixing so-called "convenience" or "automatic" or "power ____ (whatever)"
systems that I would rather do without. I detest having to alter my
behavior to fit in with what some engineer has decided "most people" will
need. I sometimes like to leave my doors wide open and walk away....I often
leave my windows wound half way down and the vehicle unlocked. I like,
sometimes, to leave my ignition key right in the vehicle's ignition....
Lots of vehicles of recent vintage won't allow that kinda stuff....without
extensive modification and extra work...They force you to do it like the
engineers decided most people "should want to" do it.....
I had to look for a while to find a Vanagon with power nothing...Glad I
found one. I'll check my own stuff, thanks.
Don Hanson
On Sat, Mar 12, 2011 at 6:25 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
> The deal is, there isn't one.
>
> I have a pretty nice vanaogn here that belongs to to intellegent educated
> people and only one of the 6 rear running lights was working ..
> all the rest, long, long ago corrodded or burnt out.
>
> And the car had recent work to the tune of too many dollars for not that
> much ..
> but no one ( ? ? ) ever checks the tail and rear running lights ?
>
> There is a technician named 'No Body' ..
> that's who checks things like brake lights , tail light, side markers, back
> up lights , license lights ...
> No Body ..that's his job, and who takes care of it usually .......No Body.
>
> and the Tail Light Fairly is a myth...
> though not everyone realizes that yet.
>
> and since there is no Tail Light Farily anymore...modern cars have warning
> systems for that..
> just like my 88 volvo does ..and Volvo had that warning system years
> before
> that.
>
> the bottom line ..
> like Tire Pressure ...SOMEBODY'S got to check it .
> ( well, now there's a gov enforced electronic Tire Pressure Monitoring
> system on all new cars ......
> so I guess the gov gave up on the Tire Pressure Fairly too. )
>
> be safe.
> Check rear lights ...might keep you from getting stopped by the poh-lease
> or
> being run into.
> The bulb and wire contacts corrode like so many things on 25 year old
> vanagons can.
>
> be safe !
> scott
>
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