Dear Listees, Although I finally got the loss of power fixed after taking the Vanagon to two bad dealers and my former mechanic who did not set the idle right, one of those three appears to have partially stripped the oil drain where the plug goes in after an oil change. I took the Vanagon in again today to the good dealer that fixed the power loss problem and they said that if they took the plug out to change the oil, I could lose the whole engine if the plug is stripped because they could not fix it. Sigh. The good mechanic at this dealership who usually works on Vanagons and has two of his own was not there today. The mechanic I used to go to says he can probably fix the stripped drain problem by getting something called a "heli-coil" plug, I think. He was the one who noticed the problem in the first place and did the last oil change, putting in 10W40 for the summer. I want 20W50 in there. Right now I do not need an oil change yet, but I want to do the right thing and sure do not want to lose the engine over a plug. Can this be fixed with a bigger plug and is that called a heli-coil? I am still mechanically challenged and have not yet had time to sign up for a course on fixing the van and am about to leave for two camping trips. So all advice, help and consultation will be gratefully accepted.
Maureen Stretch Natick, Mass. 91 Vanagon GL Westy "Johann" |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.