Fires in the rear-engine VW's are a known but avoidable problem.  In the
mature bugs and typeIIs, simply replacing the fuel lines every few
years and using hose clamps was sufficient.  On the vanagon, fires stem
from the fuel line bursting- the fuel pump maintains the lines are a
fairly high pressure so old crusty lines need to be replaced ASAP.  When
replacing the fuel lines, be sure to use the higer quality hose clamps-
the ones that don't have the threads all the way through the band part,
and be sure you use the correct fuel line- it's gotta be high
pressure. See the vendors (the bus depot and vanagain.com for
detail. Vanagain.com sell a nice little fuel line replacement package
BTW).

good luck

Matthew Pollard             http://www.uidaho.edu/~poll7356
Dept. of Chemistry               http://www.chem.uidaho.edu
University of Idaho                   http://www.uidaho.edu

On Wed, 24 Jan 2001, Tim New wrote:

> I've heard about engine fires in volkswagon vans, I've never had such a
> problem but I'm concerned about the possibility.  How does it usually
> happen? And how do I avoid it?
>
> Tim New
> Los Angeles
>