Hi Joy,

If you need professional help for the van, I highly recommend Lonnie at
University Tire & Auto.  Phone number is 919-309-7898.  He is one of the
only Vanagon mechanics in the area that I know of.  He is up in Durham,
off of Hillsborough road (aka highway 70). If you go via I-85, take exit
173 "Cole Mill Rd" south towards hillsborough road for 0.1 miles.  Take
a left onto Hillsborough rd, immediately take a left onto "Christian
avenue" between the Bojangles and KFC / Taco Bell.  You will then see
the lot full of Vanagons on your left right behind the KFC / Taco Bell.
If you are coming up 15-501 from Chapel Hill, take the "towards I-85"
options until you get to exit 108-D, Hillsborough Rd.  Take a left onto
Hillsborough Rd, go 0.2mi, and take a right after the Bojangles.
Depending on where in Chapel Hill you are, he is probably 1/2 an hour
away.  Due to the abnormally large number of Vanagons that live in
Chapel Hill, there may be qualified independents there, but I do not
know for sure.  Lonnie has done work for me before, he is honest, and he
knows how to burp a Vanagon cooling system.

Good Luck,
Michael Townsend
90 Carat
Durham, NC

-----Original Message-----
From: Joy Hecht [mailto:jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU] 
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 4:49 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Help! Problems on the road! Smoke! or something that smells
like it, anyhow...

Hi all,

I finally got out of Virginia to begin my grand life living in my van.
Well, I got as far as Chapel Hill, 280 miles.  The last 15 miles or so
my van started to get a nasty smell that reminds me of pipe smoke, acrid
pipe smoke.  (My friend whom I'm visiting thinks it's an industrial
smell but couldn't pinpoint it.)  It's handling fine.  The engine light
did not come on.  Nothing seems to be hot or smoking or anything like
that.  The smell is inside the van, not particularly outside it or near
the exhaust or engine. I checked the coolant and when I opened the
reservoir it came bubbling out - not steaming, but kind of flushing out.
I quickly closed it again and screwed the lid back on with no trouble,
so there wasn't a whole lot of pressure there.

What's going on?????  I thought I'd make it more than one day before I
ran into van trouble!!!

Joy

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Joy Hecht
and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon
and Henrietta, sad-eyed orangutan who waltzes with Matilda and me and
Bicycle and Kayak, who ride on Matilda and my 2002 green Prius, waiting
for our return from the vanadventures For musings about life and the
vanadventures: http://users.rcn.com/jhecht/gypsy
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++