> There's a humming/vibrating sensation coming from my beloved van.  I
think
> it's only on the left front wheel, and it gets louder when I'm
turning
> towards the right.
> Does that seem like a bearing problem?  Any guess regarding how much
it
> should cost to make her all good again?

in all seriousness, try rotating the wheels/tires front-to-back and
drive 300 miles (doesn't have to be in one day or one week or even one
trip ... just wait 300 miles to check). because of the peculiar front
steering setup of the vanagon (and most bmw's, too), the front wheels
lean when they turn. this causes some peculiar wear on the tread
pattern of the tires. and it'll start making a noise as you go along
the pavement. rotating them front-to-back puts the evenly-worn tires
up front, and after about 300 miles, the rear (used-to-be-front) tires
are worn back even.

if this is what it is, it'll come back in about 5000 miles.

i didn't believe it, either, when told this by a tire guy ... but i
did it and it worked. i'd wasted a lot of time trying to find the
source of the noise and never could. he said it was worse with radial
tires.

good luck!
joel