Date:         Thu, 08 Sep 94 15:34:55 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "J. Walker" <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Rubber parts on Vanagons

On Thu, 8 Sep 94 15:17:11 CDT John Huguenard said:
>Ok, Ok.  I really like my 1981 Westy, but I have one more thing to
>vent about.

:)

>I am not sure of it's past heritage, but since I have had it I have
>had to replace countless (well, not really countless) rubber boots,
>hoses, seals, etc.  Maybe the previous owner lived in the desert or
>something, or maybe VW does not use very high quality materials.

from what i hear and observe, it seems to be a lack of ability of german
rubber to withstand UV from the sun. god only knows how the stuff lasts in
places like israel (where you see so many vw buses and vanagons in the
background on CNN). but that's what i meant about it not being JUST vw ...
the porsches and bmw's do the same thing. my brother's bmw's were really
bad down on the alabama gulf coast ... we just figured it was the sun and
salt air that speeded things up.

i would bet that the desert sun and heat would also take it's toll.

>- air intake pipe (between air box and intake manifold).  Only $28
>- all the rubber hoses in the air intake system leak at the junctions,
>- steering gear boots
>- cv boots
>- steering linkage boots
>- accelerator cable boot (probably won't replace this one)
>- auxillary air controller connector
>- gasoline overfill (expansion?) tank connector
>The failure method for all these parts seems to just be a deteriotion
>of the matterial.  i.e., they get weak, develop small holes, or tear.
>It's doesn't seem to be caused by being stretched or twisted.

yup. it's just aging, it seems. and, of course, nobody makes the same parts
out of super-good neoprene or whatever long-lasting, never-rot, can't-even-
burn-it rubber-stuff. :(

> Does anybody have similar experience?

i've had to replace, on just my 6-year old 88 vanagon:
- accelerator cable boot.
- fuel hoses (ALL)

and on my older buses, i went through pretty much the same stuff as you.
the older the bus, the more stuff down under the car that dies ... cv boots,
ball joints, steering boots. that's why i think it is just heat/UV/aging.
what bothers me most are the rubber bushings around the rear suspension:
are they gonna go next? i haven't seen anyone that has had to replace these,
but it surely is only a matter of time.

and i wonder if armor-all would help any? i've tried putting it on the
cv-joint boots and tie-rods and ball-joints, but it's such a pain to clean
those things, and you never really know if it's helping.

by the by, that little accelerator cable bellows is like $12!! for a lousy
little dinky piece like that.

see, right at the end of World War II, the germans discovered out to actually
MAKE gold ... it just didn't look like gold. it's black and flexible and they
use it on their cars instead of rubber! ;)

but yeah, i'd bet that everybody has had to replace pretty much all the
same stuff as you. maybe not all at the same time, but over a while.

joel