One thing I've noticed about a lot of german engineering is that things are
designed to be perfect.
No allowance for seals to leak, or things needing to be worked on, for
example.  This would be a good example. 
And it's fairly safe for the manufacturers too, they only have to make it
look and act good for the price for the first 80K miles or so.....after
that, who cares ?
Who cares if an 80 dollar part fails, or if it's 3 hours to replace it.
Great cars on paper, great cars newish, but not a good car to own at all
when older.
I started getting leery of them back in the 5000 days - when those were
about 15 years old. 
You notice none of those are on the road much anymore. In comparison, there
are still countless Benz diesels from the 80's that just won't die, at least
not in the west where rust isn't much of a factor.  
Just everything about them is more complicated and often weird - Audi's. 
A car you really only want to work on if you specialize in them and know all
the tricks and have special tools where required, and rich customers who own
them.   

-----Original Message-----
From: Zeitgeist [mailto:gruengeist@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 8:42 PM
To: Scott Daniel - Shazam
Subject: Re: Wifes Audi - Oil Leak - NVC

No argument from me,  That thermostat design is a direct result of the
fact that it uses a t-belt.  Truth is, it only leaked 'cause it wasn't
changed the last time (the only time) the T-belt was changed.   Audi
should've never steered away from their excellent I-5 engines,
especially the non-interference 10v versions.

On Nov 26, 2007 8:11 PM, Scott Daniel - Shazam
<scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
> Sorry to bad-mouth audi's .......but I consider them a difficult case. A
far
> better car when new than when getting older, put it that way.  A
thermostat
> seal shouldn't be that tricky a technical operation to get at, in
interests
> of practicality, but that's not been much of a consideration on more
modern
> cars for a while.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Zeitgeist
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 7:24 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Wifes Audi - Oil Leak - NVC
>
>
> I found that when I removed the valve cover, the breather hose and the
> breather filter were nearly occluded with gunk.  After some time in my
> solvent tank, I got everything back in tip-top shape.  The VC seal was
> so brittle (original?), it came off in pieces.  The only problem I
> have with these engines is focused entirely on the timing belt. I
> strongly feel that no interference engine should have a timing
> belt--period.  I had to buy the special camshaft holding bar, and
> crank positioning pin in order to R&R a leaky thermostat seal.  I wish
> VAG would finally drop timing belts altogether, especially on their
> diesels.
>
>