Date:         Sat, 24 Sep 1994 20:58:40 -0600
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         hutton@poly.oscs.montana.edu (Stuart Hutton)
Subject:      Oil sprays all over my rear ...

Hi,
I kind-of have a problem with my vanagon.  It is a 1982 diesel and I seem
almost unable to get the thing to stop spraying oil droplets all over my
rear ... or the vanagon's rear, at least.  I also seem rather unable to really
know where the leak is coming from except somewhere under there.  Oh, the
oil is kind enough not to come out at low speeds but at the top speed of
61 mph, it does.  Does anyone have ideas of how to locate this leak?
I wonder how often the oil fill tubes crack allowing such a leak to happen?
(My oil fill tube seems to have a lot of oil at the base ... but so does the
back window for that matter).
I might also add that since I now know exactly how difficult it is to change
the timing belt yourself, I was able to see lots of oil in the skid plate.
Is it possible that oil which has spilled in there is being blown out by the
wind?  Also, our poor vanagon drips lots of oil on the ground.  Really a lot!
Do these things do this normally?
I have more of a related question ... When the vanagon is under a load (such
as going up a hill) I can see quite a bit of smoke coming out of the back.
How much of a bad indication is this?
Thanks for any advice you might have.
Stuart Hutton
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To paraphrase an important person:
The sun still comes up each day.  It will probably do the same tomorrow.