Date:         Wed, 6 Mar 1996 08:54:50 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Shawn Wright" <SW@smus.bc.ca>
Subject:      '88 Westy leaky rear heater core - HELP!

Last night I was starting to clean up little things on our new '88 
Westy & noticed a drop of coolant on the rear heater on/off lever. 
Further inspection revealed coolant on the floor under the seat also. 
I removed the wooden box & started the engine. Sure enough - it 
started dripping at about one drop every 5-10 seconds regardless of 
the position of the lever. Since this lever seems to be integral with 
the core, I suspect it will need a complete new core. The leak was 
also with a cold engine, so I suspect it could only get worse under 
pressure...

So now I'm thinking - the dealer claimed to have done a pressure test 
for 45 mins on the system with no leaks. Hmmmmm. If the leak only 
appeared when hot (ie: open thermostat) I could *maybe* buy this, but 
the rear heater core appears to always have coolant flow, so *any* 
pressure test should have revealed this leak. Am I correct here?

If so, this means either no test was done, or the test failed & they 
covered it up & just added a bit more coolant to the tank. Either 
way, the dealer is plainly in the wrong here. One of the conditions 
of the sale was that the dealer was to test the cooling system for 
leaks and repair any source of these leaks, including head gaskets. 

So two questions: Is there a recall on these heater cores, as there 
is for the Jetta/Golfs?

Since I fairly certain that the pressure test was not done, or the 
results covered up, what can I do to make certain that the heads are 
not leaking on this engine? If it takes being present while they do a 
test, I will do it, as I do not want this deal to fall through, but I 
also do not want to be doing heads right away. I have every receipt 
since new for this vehicle, so I feel comfortable with keeping it as 
long as the heads can be proven good.

ps: In BC, the law gives us 7 days to back out of a purchase with no 
penalty, which gives me until Saturday... This is a last resort of 
course. I would appreciate any advice on how best to deal with this 
and keep the vehicle asap!!!

Thanks!


Shawn.

Shawn
'88 Westy 322k (Kyra)
'85 Jetta TD 341k (Jenni)