Date:         Mon, 24 Aug 1998 09:39:07 -0500
Reply-To:     arbosch@RA.ROCKWELL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Alan Bosch <arbosch@RA.ROCKWELL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Got Diesel Rabbit Pickup?
Comments: To: "Charles \"Luke\" Lukey" <luke@SEANET.COM>
Comments: cc: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Never had a P/U but had a Diesel Rabbit that was, easily, the best car I've
ever had.  Really the samething as P/U except tranny was different - taller
gearing in Rabbit, I think.

IMHO, VW diesels are bullet-proof.  They seem to run forever.  Problems
with mine were head gasket blew at 120k miles.  When gasket blew, head
warpped.  Machine shops familier with 350 Chevy heads CAN NOT machine VW
diesel heads!  I found out the hard way!  If - or rather when - the
headgasket goes, it's best to just replace the head too.  Found good
rebuilts from The Parts Place in Michigan.

Never had a problem with the fuel system, but I've heard that if the
injector heat shields for the fuel injectors are installed wrong, you can
burn out the injectors.  Origional injector pump was still functioning when
I sold the vehicle with 235k miles.

There's a place in Ohio that specializes in VW diesels - can't recall the
name right now, but they have a web site that I surfed a while back.  Use
HotBot and search for VW Diesel or VW Rabbit Diesel.  If memory serves,
they offer a ton of info.

Good luck.

Alan Bosch, aka Ever the Wannabus
Presently:  '92 Passat CL
Formerly: '69, '71, '73 Bugs, '82 Rabbit L, '82 Rabbit Diesel, '83, GTi,
'88 Fox GL Sport, '94 Jetta III
"...fah'n, fah'n, fah'n auf der autobahn..."