Date:         Thu, 5 May 1994 17:51:59 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Dean Paul Karpowicz <chinaski@csd4.csd.uwm.edu>
Subject:      Control arm bushings!!!!

I noticed that between Richard Jones' description of the bushings "groaning"
that I have had this problem since spring of '87.  Now the control arms are
about to fall off (damn near!!) and I find out that there is a lousy tech
bulletin concerning lousy VW parts!!!!

I stopped by the 'friendly' (yeah, right!) local VW dealer and informed him
of my plight, and his response was "yea, so what do you want me to do about
it?"  I say "fix it for free, it's been broke for years, and I didn't know
what was wrong with it, and now it's become a safety problem".  His answer
was "well, your van is no longer under warrenty, so you'll have to talk to
Volkswagen".

Do you think that if I call VW, they will fix the damn thing?   I think that
if a lot of people start calling the NTSHA they would have to issue an
official safety recall!!!  I really feel that this is not safe, and I
wouldn't have noticed it unless I had recently jacked it up to bleed the
radiator and got curious about the wheels.

Would I have any legal recourse if the control arm wears through the pivot
pin and causes an accident, and Volkswagen has admitted in a service
bulletin (not a recall) that there are defective parts involved?

Sorry, just venting!!!