Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 06:58:10 -0500
Reply-To: Darrell Boehler <midwesty@MIDWEST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Darrell Boehler <midwesty@MIDWEST.NET>
Subject: Re: 91 Vanagon - blown head gaskets - oh no!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi Karen,
I would consider a new shop. Heads normally last many years or over 100k
miles. Unless you have an oil pressure gauge both oil pressure senders /
switches are needed to determine if the engine has proper oil pressure, this
would raise my blood pressure and I have already had a heart attack. To
his credit 20-50 is the proper oil.
Darrell
----- Original Message -----
From: Karen Gritis <gritis@IBM.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 1999 10:24 PM
Subject: 91 Vanagon - blown head gaskets - oh no!
> Oh most wise list:
>
> I knew this would happen if we tried to take a vacation. We packed the
> van to the gills with beach stuff and headed down 95 towards Nags Head
> from Fairfax. We had just mentioned that all gauges, etc. were fine,
> when suddenly they no longer were! The temperature gauge (which
> normally rides just to the left of the light) suddenly zoomed all the
> way to the right and the light started flashing. There was a
> corresponding loss of power.
>
> We immediately pulled to the shoulder and the engine died of its own
> accord. We saw a trail of coolant to mark our route. We unpacked
> everything and saw lots of steam escaping from the engine.
>
> To make a long story short we called a tow truck and had it towed and of
> course there were no VW mechanics open on Saturday in the outskirts of
> Richmond. We did find one shop that had a Bentley in their possession.
> They diagnosed what we had feared - both head gaskets blown. I decided
> to have it trailered back to Fairfax to the shop where the heads had
> been replaced approximately 1 year and 12,000 miles ago. I just got
> home from vacation and immediately turned to the list for help, I plan
> on speaking with the mechanic tomorrow to find out his assessment of the
> problem. I would like to feel a little more knowledgeable before I
> speak with him.
>
> I don't know whether this has any bearing on the head gasket failure or
> not, but for what its worth. I picked my van up after the repair last
> year (new heads) and as I was driving up a 25 degree incline, the
> warning light and buzzer both came on with no increase in temperature
> registered by the needle. Both warning signals stopped before I could
> stop, so I drove back to the repair shop where I left it once again. I
> was told that the oil was changed to 20W50 because sometimes "older,
> looser" engines need that weight and that the second warning sensor was
> defective and the best fix was to disable it, which was done.
>
> What's my next course of action? My van is very important to me and I
> don't want to have to settle for some inferior method of transportation
> because I can't afford what's happening with this engine.
>
> Any suggestions, help, etc.?
>
> Thanks,
> Karen
>
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