Date:         Fri, 18 Sep 1998 12:51:32 -0700
Reply-To:     Neil Wigley <wigley@MAIL.FUNTV.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Neil Wigley <wigley@MAIL.FUNTV.COM>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon Confidenc (was: one year anniv.)
Comments: To: Vanagon@vanagon.com
In-Reply-To:  <769c878f.360247f0@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Concerning Vanagon confidence, brought up by:
>Ken Wilford
>John 3:16,

I've been around in my '87 Westy, bought in '94 in Windsor Ontario. Went to
the West Coast that summer (came over I-8 from Yuma to SDiego in July; a
climb from below zero ft to 3800 above sea level in a few miles, temp above
100, Vanagon temp gauge didn't even move!), Florida the next spring, St
John's Newfoundland in June '95 (that's a wonderful trip for those of you
in the East) and up to Inuvik in the summer of '96 with the
Top-of-the-World group. Then to the tip of Baja last January.

To answer your obvious question, I taught math at that time; now retired.

Troubles I've had many, but almost all of them with warning, e.g. the
lovely smell of sweetness at the rear bumper cost me less than $2K in
USbucks, the transmission mount was C$250. These things needn't be
performed today or even tomorrow, just pretty soon.

On the road? Well, the first trip West the car would die after a rainstorm
and stay dead for twenty minutes. Tuneup fixed that.

Best was the jaunt from W Newfoundland, where, yes there is a VW dealer, to
St John's in the E of Nfld, where the other dealer is. Starter went out
early, but no pblm, just push start.

But nearing St John's it started running ragged, then raggeder, then
raggedest as we hit the city limits. From smooth to bucking to not running
in about 50km. Fortunately the Trans-Can Hwy is downhill at that point.
Found a Firestone dealer, where they recommended the non-official VW
dealer, who put in new oxy sensor (the culprit) and new/rebuilt Bosch
starter, charged C$800+. But, back in Ontario, I got my Nfld salestax on
the parts refunded! A trivial-sounding sum to those of you who deal in
greenbacks and know the unearthly current exchange rate (shoulda taken that
summer trip to Canada, folks!), but hey a lagniappe is a lagniappe!

The Inuvik trip was without event (for me). Oh, the alternator belt, N of
Whitehorse. Next gas station had one (3 km).

Moral learned from the Inuvik trip: don't mess with passenger car tires on
the Westy. Virtually all of the flats encountered were with them, not with
the load range 'C'. Mine were Costco Uniroyal Laredos (now called Kirkland
brand; alleged to be 'the same as the Laredos, in any event at $48 the
price is right!).

Moral learned from all of the above: if well maintained, the Vanagon is
reliable, if costly. But most of the problems come with a heap of warning.

I shall now knock on wood for the rest of the day.

Neil, now of San Diego