Date:         Thu, 27 Oct 1994 20:46:47 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         wabbott@townshend.Corp.Megatest.COM (William Abbott)
Subject:      Re: Tranny oil

	I wondered myself about six-month intervals on Tranny fluid. Could
Someone Else be talking about automatic transmissions? In which case, 
shoot, why not change all that stuff for a gear box? :-)

	I'd consider changing transmission oil every 50,000 miles to be
museum-quality restoration- I normally do it at 100,000 and 200,000, or
every 10 years, or when I buy a used vehicle. Note that this is for
VWs and other high quality cars which use Hypoid Oil. Hondas and Saabs
and other clever things which use engine oil in the gearbox (lower drag,
lower power loss, but more frequent replacement) have 20-30K mile changing
intervals in their books and I'd probably cut that in half, just like 
the wise owner does for engine oil changes.

	Since I usually do my own brake fluid replacement, I tend to 
do this at 1 year intervals. Mostly because of how awful the stuff that
comes out after 2 years looks... I prefer it to still look like
brake fluid when I'm done with it. Remember that the typical path
for moisture to enter your brake system is through the rubber hoses
that connect each wheel cylender/caliper to the hard pipes on the
chassis. So when the stuff in the resivior changes color, it *ALL* bad.

	Stainless steel braid over teflon flexible hoses are advocated by
many, but I know of one accident caused by metal fatigue of the stainless
steel braid, and I've never heard of an accident caused by rubber hoses.
The stainless braid stuff is great on race cars that get frequent inspections.
Otherwise, stick with rubber.

	I follow the book on cooling system drain and flush interval,
mostly because I consider the cooling system to be both less
sensitive and less critical. I might have a different opinion if I owned
a wasserboxer, thought.

	Bill

	PS- anyone seen any Vanagon pickups or double cabs for sale out
there?