> I found the reason my fan belt is squealing.  First, you will recall that I
> recently replaced my oil breather hose?  Well, it had a kink in it.  I
> figured it would straighten out on its own.  WRONG!  Here are some things I
> noticed recently without taking the time to actually take a look at the
> engine:  Some oil drips started appearing in my driveway.  My engine
> started smelling more like what I thought was a characteristic Vanagon
> smell, a sort of burnt oil or rubber smell.  The alarms should have been
> going off.  Today I was out in the driveway smoking a cigarette and noticed
> what looked like oil spots on the back of the van.  That did it.  I popped
> open the back and looked at the engine.  It's covered in oil!  Well, that's
> why my belt's been squealing, obviously.  I'm speculating that the kinked
> breather hose caused a buildup of pressure and has caused oil to blow out
> from somewhere, I'm not sure where exactly.  I'll be going to my FLAPS
> shortly and see if we can't cobble together a better breather hose
> solution; perhaps put an elbow or something in that breather hose to
> straighten out the path and clear the kink.

Marc Perdue

> Marc Perdue wrote:
>
> >Okay, so the '87 Westy is the oldest vehicle I've owned in quite some
> >time, so I'm a little (make that a lot) rusty at these things.  I
> >noticed that my fan belt (okay, it's not really a FAN belt, but you know
> >what I'm talking about) has started squealing over the past week or so.
> >I've also observed that a lot of cars' fan belts squeal more in the
> >winter time.  Is this pretty much normal?  Back in the old days, when I
> >had a Ford truck with 246,000 miles on it, was a student with negative
> >money, I'd just spray the sucker with belt dressing and be on my way.
> >Now that I'm an adult (sort of) with negative money, I'm curious if this
> >is still the best solution.  My real question is this though: Is a
> >squealing fan belt necessarily an indication of a worn-out belt?  I know
> >what to look for to figure out if a belt needs to be replaced, but it's
> >dark out just now and I'm basically lazy.  On a vanagon, will a broken
> >fan belt destroy the engine?
> >
> >Okay, that's enough of the stupid questions for the moment.  Thanks for
> >your support,
> >Marc Perdue
> >
> >
> >