In a message dated 4/21/00 4:18:07 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
k1cajun@PIPELINE.COM writes:

<< Anyway, what I noticed is that at the rear inside bottoms of the
 front doors, where the 89 has what seems to be dummy louver vents,
 the 87 has what seems to be functional vents - they have a little
 sliding handle.  The 89 has these ducts holes that go from front of
 door to back and then a hole in the door frame - I never knew why
 they were there, but assumed they were something to duct fresh air to
 engine compartment for combustion along with the ducts at the upper
 rear.  But it seems as though the 87 also ducts the same air to the
 cabin at driver and passenger's hips ??  I looked in the 87 owners
 manual and couldn't find any mention of these louvers.  Any ideas ?
 Search in archives just comes up with vent windows.
  >>

the vents at the rear of the back windows on th '88-'91 vanagons are for
fresh interior air. they replaced the earlier '80-'87 style in the front
doors. has nothing to do w/ engine cooling air.
chris