VW made a lot of big mistake with this van, but i have to say one thing
about  the quality of any rubber on this van, it's simply outstanding!

Yesterday i was ripping of an engine and everything inside the engine bay
for a conversion, i was cutting hoses and i was swearing like hell (like i
always do), again i said to myself, darn those coolant hoses are solid
(swearing).

Wile doing a conversion i have to slightly cut some new hose (length), i
always use razor blade... well, i can tell you that sometime, the old hoses
are stronger than the new one.

Same goes for Fuel line, extreme quality!!! (not a reason not to replace them!)

Windows rubber, out of this world quality, i often reuse them.

So rubber is not a problem at all, not even after 20 year.

The problem around the engine is the quantity of hoses... oufff. So yes,
after 20+ years this is a big risk. Wile removing the plastic coolant
distributor yesterday (2.1L), i just gently pull on this one and it broke in
3 pieces. What a time bomb.

Glad that in our Subi conversion we use only 30% of hoses compare to the
stock engine.

Ben