Date:         Thu, 8 Jun 1995 13:59:48 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         ryan75@PrimeNet.Com (Ryan Michael Stevens)
Subject:      Re: FTC, VWOA, Head gasket problem

>I am trying to see how many of us have/had the problem to support the
>point that it is indeed a VW's engineering defect. Please support me if
>you do/did have the gasket problem. If I don't have this support my winning
>(so are yours in the future) chance will be significantly lowered.
>
>Thanks.
>
>David Kao
>david.kao@eng.sun.com
>(dripping) 84 vanagon
>(leaking) 83 westy
>

This sounds all too familiar.  I bought a used '83 1/2 from a local dealer
way back when, complete with 50% parts 50% labor warranty.  That should have
clued me in that something was wrong...  I can't remember how many times I
had people flagging me down on the freeway notifying me of liquid spewing
from the back of my van.  And I only had about 48K miles on it!  Well, $500
later all was solved, although I still have this suspicion that the dealer
knew exactly waht was wrong.  No wonder I got such a good deal on it.  The
only good thing to come out of this was that when the van was totalled in an
accident a few years later, I ended up getting more from the insurance
company than I paid for it!

I did come up with a system to help avoid overheating.  I installed a two
position switch in the dash (stock fog light switch did the trick, and was
totally unobtrusive) wired directly to the thermo switch on the radiator.
This allowed me to switch on the fan to either of the two available speeds
when I thought that the engine was a little hotter than it should be
(usually about half scale on the gauge).  OK, so it's not fully automatic,
but I never had another cooling problem again.  This did nothing to disable
the thermoswitch from activating the fan.  In all the time that I owned that
bus, I only heard the fan come on once.  It was in a crowded parking garage,
and I had not been looking at the gauge.  The needle was way beyond the 3/4
mark at that point.

Although not a current Vanagon owner (the ex got the '90; she knew it was
the only thing I wanted out of the divorce...), I am somewhat wary of
purchasing another wasserboxer for fear of the same problems.  My mother has
a '90 Carat, and has only had a water pump fail; no head trouble.  Please
tell me - am I overly paranoid?...

Ryan