Quesitons about backup VW Van

[Eric Sanborn]

On 6/16/05, Cat     ^. .^   ~ <iceisit at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Has anyone had any of these models ?
> 
> How reliable?
> 
My parents has an '84 westy camper.  I learned to drive stick in it. 
Very low on power, but a great driving car.  They bought it new and
put 190k on it.  The only major engine work was after a drive up Mt.
Washington.  Just a little too much for it to handle with 5 people in
the car in the summer.  We warped a head or something.  I can't
exactly remember.

They would have kept it longer, but in the late 90's it developed a
problem where sometimes it would not start when warm.  Sometimes for
hours.  They struggled with this for a couple years and then sold it
to a guy that already had a bunch of them.  I ran across the following
site a few months ago.  I think this might have been their problem.

http://www.benplace.com/vanagon_intermittent_syndrome.htm

The A/C only worked for about the first 5 years, but they are up in NH
and up there who needs A/C anyway except for maybe 2 weeks a year.

Aside from these problems the car was bullet proof.  Some day I would
like to find a clean 5 spd synco westy and put a TDI in it.  Sadly
that is behind quite a few other projects in the list.

-- 

Eric Sanborn
http://sofadog.net/4ktq/