Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 13:49:01 -0500
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: pll@unlinfo.unl.edu (Patrick Larsen)
Subject: vwoa/head gasket/heater core
Well, the inevitable happened. My Vanagon is spewing coolant from many
orifices. After 5 years and 93,000 miles, I find myself in the position of
so many Vanagon owners before me. But let me start from the beginning. For
several months now, I have been experiencing a slow, gradual loss of coolant
from my expansion tank. I crawl under the van about every other week to poke
around, change oil, etc. and there was no evidence of weeping heads. When I
used the defroster last week, there was a small puddle of coolant under the
front end, so I assumed that this had been where the coolant was going
(leaking heater core). Well last week I crawled under the van and to my
horror, but not to my surprise, there was an ever-so-small drop of coolant
under the driver-side head, trying to liberate itself from my engine! The
inevitable had occurred.
I spent the next day reading up on the ubiquitous head leak problem and got
an incredible amount of information from the list archives (do a search on
'head gasket leak' and you'll have enough reading to keep you busy for quite
awhile :( Based on the experiences and recommendations of others, I phoned
VW of A to see what they could/would do for me. They required me to get a
'professional' diagnosis from the local dealer, which didn't cost me
anything. The dealers conclusion confirmed my suspicions, as well as found
ANOTHER coolant leak in the radiator. Ultimately, VWofA agreed to
fix/replace the heater core at no cost to me, and cover 50% of the head job.
The radiator, they tried to tell me, was simply leaking due to weathering
and age (4 yrs!). In other words, I will be fixing the radiator at my expense.
All in all, I was pleased with the service from VWofA, and considered their
offer fair, if not generous (considering the 93,000 miles on the
out-of-warranty van).
If anyone wants more details, feel free to e-mail me personnally.
Pat
____________________________________
Patrick L. Larsen
Water Center/Environmental Programs
University of Nebraska
pll@unlinfo.unl.edu
http://www.uvm.edu/~plarsen/pat.html
____________________________________
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