The Passat's valve cover gasket looks like this:
http://www.busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=058198025A

Bus Depot has it for only $20. The dealer wants about $50.
Look at how thin the gasket is and how it makes a 90 degree
rise and down in several places. It can break into pieces on
your hand if you don't hold it carefully. Imagine you screw
down the screws of the valve cover. It compresses the gasket to
make a seal. But how about the vertical part of the gasket?
It gets pulled and break. It's a joke to design a valve
cover to use a gasket like that. See the right lower corner
shown in the picture. That's where oil leaks. That shows how
VW engineering is brain damaged.

David

--- Allan Streib <streib@CS.INDIANA.EDU> wrote:

> David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM> writes:
>
> > Believe it or not, I do not have a single friend who does not buy
> > Japanese cars. The only exception is my wife's cousine who leases a
> > MB S-560. He is a doctor. He leases a new one every two years for
> > tax purposes. Other than that none of my friends own a VW or any
> > European cars. Some of my co- workers own BMWs and MBs. No one has
> > VWs. What a lessen I learned.
>
> Have you ever driven a Japanese car?  They are boring.  They have no
> soul.  If you want to get from point A to point B OK, but there is no
> comparison to the feeling of driving a german car.
>
> Allan
> --
> 1991 Vanagon GL
>

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