I am not picking on my friend Larry and he had a great trip breakdowns
and all. I am all for fixing what is known to be bad before a big trip.
It just seems that we can go too far in trying to head off problems that
may never crop up. Buy a van that has been seeing regular use, check it
out for a while, fix those problems that are discovered. You are right
that rebuilt engines don't often live as long as the original. Same goes
for the trannys. A couple years ago I had one of my 2wd trannys rebuilt
as a precaution in a Westy I planned to take some very long trips in.
Big mistake. I have never before had a VW tranny turn to rubble while I
was driving but the rebuilt one did just that on a big trip. That was
after it had been fixed under warranty once already. After that I junked
the tranny and put a used one in. No problems with that one.

Mark

Benoit wrote:

> """why not just limp the original until it died?"""
> I agree... i guess he was scared... or in need of a new gadget engine
> (he he he Larry)...but what he told me made sense, a bit more power
> because of it's heavy load... Let's not forget one thing, this engine
> deal look pretty good.
> Now, we know one thing, in general, VW rebuilt engine are crap in
> general...they simply don't last... most people and customer i know
> don't have more than 30 to 40 k miles before a major overall!!!!!!!!
>
> So, in that sense, VW west  are Junk, not the van but the engine side
> of it!!!!
> We are way far of a very reliable Honda engine that will do way more
> than 200k miles on a engine without any major maintenance!!!!!!!!!!! I
> work on both company all day long...VW is wat far from Honda technology.
>
> """Why did he get all new ones? Then a couple thousand  miles later he
> has a failure."""
> It is call prevention, for some, it's a must, fot others, it is not a
> need...now, who are we to judge what degree of prevention is good for
> one...and for others??????????????? I agree on some stuff.... Maybe he
> went to far as for prevention...but i am not the one to judge!!!
>
> """These folks were going to the tip of South America and back in a
> group of VW vans.""""
> I met them, a least 1 of those folks...one is in Orlando! Keeth. His
> trip was not about a van....but about a trip!
>
> I think there is aminimum that can be done before a big trip like
> that....

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