[Vwdiesel] Plastic VW parts-what falls apart?

[Tony and Lillie]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tony and Lillie" <tonyandlillie1 at earthlink.net>
[Vwdiesel] Oil dip dtick degrade.


 Here's what I've seen fail from fatigue:

 Expansion tanks and caps, Radiator hose fittings, Wing window openers in
 B1's, various dash plastics, especially hard pieces exposed to a lot of 
sun.
 Seatbelt trim, plastic key heads, dash vents.

 And, of course rubber things such as all mounts and suspension bushings.

Probably some things that need to be added to the list, but that's all I can 
think of right now.

Tony Hoffman


 ----- Original Message ----- 
 From: "William J Toensing" <toensing at wildblue.net>
 Subject: [Vwdiesel] Oil dip dtick degrade.


>> Thank you for calling this to our attention. While I can't speak to VW 
>> plastic life in particular, I have noted many plastic items degrade with 
>> age & become more brittle. This can happen to metal as well. In general, 
>> manufacturers don't design their cars to last more than 10 or 15 years. 
>> I collect old radios & have collected some Soviet era Russian radios. 
>> There radio knobs tend to be brittle & break easily. I think when these 
>> plastics were new, they often had no way of knowing how long they would 
>> last as I don't think the Soviet economy believed in planned obsolesce. 
>> With the forgoing in mind, what other plastic parts in our VWs do we have 
>> to watch out for?
>>