At 06:38 AM 10/21/2003, you wrote:
>  on all vanagons the alternator does not
>charge till the van is reved a bit, then the LED
>alt/battery light goes out when the alt startes
>charging the battery.

This is normal. Just start the engine, rev to activate the charging, drive
on. An old batt dash bulb can cause a higher rev needed to activate, so a
new bulb can improve the situation, but, if the lights go out when you rev
and stay off at idle, you have no problem. Why the engineers designed it
that way I can't say, but it can be more or less the same on ALL Euro
vehicles, not just VW. I dare say some people have been sold unneeded
alternators and batteries by Ford and Toyota mechanics who just haven't got
a clue. Not much different than the tapping lifters. If they quiet down in
a few miles of driving, don't spend time/money for a solution to no problem
at all.