Date:         Fri, 12 Jul 1996 21:12:39 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Berry Kercheval <kerch@parc.xerox.com>
Subject:      Re: fatal waterpumper flaw/Subaru? 

>>>Steve Tokar said:
 > Bob Hoover wrote:
 > 
 > >The water-cooled horizontally opposed four cylinder engine designed by
 > >Volkswagen has a fatal design flaw... The nature -- and cure -- for this
 > problem was defined and
 > >confirmed -- twice -- in the judgements passed down as a result of VW's
 > >lawsuits against Subaru, who corrected the flaw. 

 > I'm unfamiliar with this legal contretemps, and as the driver of an '87
 > Subaru as well as a VW, am curious as to what exactly the flaw is

I believe it's a head gasket problem.

We bought our '84 Vanagon from a VW dealer in Concord California whose name I 
am embarassed to admit I cannot remember this evening.  It was a second-hand 
bus, and already 4 or 5 years old.

A couple of weeks after we brought it home, the head gaskets blew.  The dealer 
not only bludgeoned VWoA into agreeing to pay for a new engine, they agreed to 
let us have OUR mechanic do the job.

I can't say enough good things about the VW dealer in Concord.  We wound up 
buying three VW's from them over the years, and if we ever buy another new one 
I'll probably trek across the bay over there to do it, even if we do now live 
an hour-and-a-half away.


  --berry

Berry Kercheval :: kerch@parc.xerox.com :: Xerox Palo Alto Research Center