Locke,
I am going to put this very gently. Although I have complained on occasion
about the lack of reliabilty of my 84, I only payed 500 bucks for it, knew
it had a compression leak into the cooling system when I bought it. I ran it
for a year till I decided I was tired of filling the cooling system up every
couple of days. I went and bought a used engine from Vanagain, and got an
engine that's been pretty reliable, even though the previous owner (whom I
don't even know who that was) didn't bother to inform me that the #3
sparkplug was held in with duct tape (figuratively). Yep, I have put a bit
of money into my cheep van...
But there is no way in the world those repairs should have cost you what
they did. And if they did, perhaps you shouldn't own a vanagon.
By what do you mean reputable VW shop? A pop, a cloud of gray smoke and you
need a starter? Huh? Maybe more explanation is required before we can make
sense out of that. And 230 bucks for a belt and a dipstick and dipstick
holder? And 2000 dollars in electrical work? Do you wear a shirt that says
'Kick Me"?

I suspect that unless you really really want to buy these 'reputable' VW
mechanics their next Porsche, you figure out what's REALLY wrong before you
take it in, and/or learn to do it yourself. The only other option is, sadly,
to find another vehicle.

tim in san jose

>
>I am new to the list and need some advice. I bought a 1986 vanagon last
>August. It had 186,000 miles on it with a rebuilt(heads)engine. Since I
>bought it I've put about 4,000 miles on it. It broke down once immediately
>requiring $2,000 worth of work, alternator, all new wiring, new ECU. It was
>an electrical grounding problem, plus a couple things that were fixed that
>weren't right. I didn't drive it for most of the fall thinking I would sell
>it, that the karma was bad. As it turns out I reregistered it in January
>and
>have driven it since. Last week one of the belts snapped and pulled the
>dipstick housing and twisted it down under the engine. So that needed to be
>fixed. Another $230. Yesterday I was driving along and there was a pop, a
>cloud of grey smoke and it died. I got it towed again, it needs a starter,
>just to get it started and who know what else. Luckily it has broken down
>close to reputable repair shops who do only VW work. It's frustrating as I
>bought it from a reputable source and it keeps leaving me stranded. I love
>the van but worry it's going to continue to let me down. Any ideas?

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