Hi, Vanagoners -

Well, MY experience has been somewhere in between those tales of woe and testimonials of ultimate reliability. I've had my '85 GL for just over a year (purchased at 63k miles) and now have around 78k miles on it. It overheated a couple times in the dead of winter and though I know (and then knew) better, I just put more coolant in and kept driving, revving the engine for a spell whenever the temp gauge crept up a bit. That got me through until warmer weather allowed wimpy me to get out on the ground and take a look-see underneath and determine the source of the problem. Guess what -- there was no visible trace of a leak on the ground, at least; when I looked at the engine I couldn't really tell if there was a problem there either.

So I replaced the expansion tank and cap, as that was the only place I could see any obivious leak. That helped a bit - no more overheating - but the coolant level was still dropping even after most of the air should have been purged out. Then one day the beast decided to start dumping its coolant on the ground: it had burst a hose. So I fixed the hose (cheap), refilled and bled the system, and now it seems to be fine again. The coolant level has dropped slightly, but I attribute that to air still being purged (I hope). And I always park with the beast's tail going uphill -- is this just superstition or is it to some degree useful?

So to get to the point: how does one definitively diagnose a head gasket problem? Without $helling out big buck$ to a VW mechanic, that is...

--

Peace.

-cg :{)

--- || Christian O. Getschow (cgetschow@aerodyne.com) || Aerodyne Research, Inc. Billerica, MA || What, me worry?