I too had this same dilemma on 2 of my 4 tires.  I had the long stems and
they cracked and broke.  I had my tire guy install short stems ( I have the
chrome VW Frisbee caps so the length is not an issue ) and all is well for
quite some time.  I thought the stems first used were probably old and dried
out or that the length caused some flexing while in operation causing
premature wear.  Bruce is right though.  Check yours before you'd wished you
had.
Dave
'85 Westy " Magic Bus "
'93 EVMV " The Truck "
'98 Beetle " Lipstick "
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Wolz" <wolzphoto@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: To use Bars Leaks or not.....

I'm with Mr. McNeely.  If you can swell the head gaskets AND they are
only in the seep stage, that's fine.  However, when the water pump
starts leaking, there's a good chance that catastrophic failure is
only a few miles down the road.  I've been stranded twice by being an
optimist on water pump issues.  Now I'm a realist - replace it NOW.

Karl Wolz

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 8:49 AM, B Feddish <bfeddish@netreach.net> wrote:
>>> I'll second Jeff's email. I had a mystery coolant loss in Dixie and put
> in 2 bottles of the Subaru Head Gasket Conditioner. That was in the spring
> and the coolant level hasn't budged. <<
>
> I'm starting to think that's the way to go.
>
> Thanks everyone for replying on this. hmmm where to find a Subaru dealer
> around here, I have 4 VW dealears nearby....
>
> Bryan
>