I have a friend who bought a "salvaged" '90 GL which had a fire not near the engine compartment, but with the electrical fan in the front pass. area. A feature not found on many air suckers. I also had a close call with auto-tranny fluid dripping on my headers and cat. (yeah I know, what possessed me into buying an auto tranny?)

Marty Wallace wrote:

I don't know that I would declare <1983.5 VW Vans a "fire trap", but I do
think that their rate of engine fires is significantly higher than motor
vehicles in general. Additionally, the rate of air-cooled VW engine
fires is << that of water-cooled VWs. (Can anyone back me up or shoot me
down on this?)
If I had a choice (and, after looking at VW Campers for 10-15 years, I
DID buy a water-cooled model - for many reasons), I would buy a
water-cooled model.
I would like to read others' opinions as well.
Marty Wallace (1984 Westfalia)
Chico, California
---mac stricklen <mac_stricklen@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Does this mean that air cooled vanagons have a significantly higher
> engine fire rate?
> If so does this mean that I should pass on the nicely restored and
> overhauled-with-new-fuel-lines air-cooled that I've been looking at
> because it's a fire trap?
> Is there anything besides periodically replacing fuel lines and
> carrying a fire extinguisher that I should do?
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