I had that happen to me......thought it was the end of my engine with all the
leaking that was going on.  Luckily ?($300 later), it only turned out to be
this part that is apparently made of rejected toy plastic.  I believe that many
of the parts on the vanagon were devised to establish increased reparations for
WWII.  Go figure!

Mike Garske

'87 Syncro

Stucco wrote:

> Hey Listees,
>
> So I'm having my mechanic do a simple job for me- the (PVC?) conduit that
> under my van that carries the antifreeze back to the engine developed a slow
> leak up front after I drove over something or another and was bugging be.
> Time for a fix.  He gets that battle won in next to no time and is letting
> my van run to test for air in the system and general cooling health when
> *POP* and loads of steam!  This funky little "T" shaped affair designed to
> route coolant to the rear heater falls apart!  It's roughly, just in front
> and above the passenger rear tire.  Well, I'm glad it happened there,
> needles to say, but upon further inspection of the remains- what is this
> plastic?  I mean it's oddly sized (the straight legs are 5/8" and the tap
> leg is 1/2" and made of thin (and decayed) plastic!  What would I have done
> out on the roads someplace? My mechanic had a replacement from a '91 he's
> parting out, thankfully.  I was considering something a bit heartier like
> copper or something, but as he had the part and it looked loads better than
> my busted one...
>
> Has anyone dealt with this under engineered little ditty or am I a
> trendsetter?  :)
>
> Scott Paddock
> '87 Vanagon Wolfsburg "Rolf"  (who no longer marks his territory with
> antifreeze)
> '93 Eurovan GL "Gita"