Yes, but when a part is defined as being a defective design, as
opposed to being simply a defective item, it's given a new part
number which may be a variation on the old number -- a  suffix of
some sort, for example.  In the case of the relay in question I never
ran across any suggestion that there had been a previous
version.  The same part number was used in quite a number of other
cars, Jettas, for instance, in addition to all of the Vanagons from
1981 to 1991.  So the "test population" would seem to have been very large.

Charles
'85 Westy

At 06:34 PM 9/6/2006, Victor Spinetti wrote:
>I realize that I'm coming in the middle of this disciussion but I could
>not hold myself back.  I've been fixing VW vans since 1970, for about 28
>of those years people have paid me to do it & I went to many of the VW
>service schools in the '70's.  I've been around & around with the parts
>quality issue & here is another thing to think about.  Most car makers (VW
>included) do not make all their own parts.  They buy them from "vendors".
>The maker (hereafter referred to as VW) designs the van & figures out what
>they need to make it work, in this case a coolant level warning
>light "relay".  VW figures out what the "relay" is supposed to do &
>contacts electronics makers to have it built.  When the "relays" are made
>they get some sort of testing to see if they will work as originally
>intended.  Then they are installed on the vans.  Now comes a crucial
>point, suppose that after a while that many vans are returning to the
>dealers with always blinking coolant warning lights.  Eventually the
>problem is traced to the "relay" & a new design is created.  The
>new "relays" fix the problem, but what happens to all the "old" ones on
>the shelves at parts depts. & warehouses?  Ideally they would
>be "recycled" & not used, but what if they get wholesaled out the back
>door? After all some of them worked some of the time.  So that less
>expensive part you might have bought could be less than ideal in function
>even if it has an OEM logo & part # on it!