I feel like I'm at an AA meeting but I will confess I still have the green
stuff in my van that was put there in 1996. I am a 100% believer that the
problem with the Vanagons is air in the system. To make an extremely long
story short that's what killed my ol' '84 GL in '95.  I bled every ounce of
air out of my 83 back in '96 and that temp gauge rarely passes over that led
in the center, even when really hot. OK, sure, I could have catastrophic
failure soon but I got more years out of that motor than many people that
bought these vans new.  Why haven't I changed the fluid? It's one of those
"if it ain't broke don't fix it things".  Sure, I'm ruffling a few feathers
with that but I've gotten many good years out of my van.  I'm convinced 1%
of the mechanics out there, and that includes VW dealers, know how to bleed
the air out.  VW could have saved themselves allot of new heads and rebuilds
if they only taught their shops how to bleed a Vanagon. It takes hours, not
many people want to do that.

Fire away.

Bryan