---- David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET> wrote:
> At 02:32 AM 2/24/2011, M. Jade wrote:
> >Thanks a lot for everyone's quick reply to the question. The coolant
> >hose is original. It was never replaced despite the thermostat has
> >been replaced twice and the hose was disconnected and reconnected
> >many times. I noticed that the hose is not as flexible as when it
> >was very new. But it is not hardened to a point to need replacement.
>
> You're talking about a twenty six year old hose here

Some folks advocate that upon acquisition of a new to you Vanagon, you replace all coolant hoses, as well as all fuel lines.  I have done that on mine, and it gives me some bit of confidence over what I would have otherwise.  Not inexpensive, but what is money not spent worth when one is 60 or 100 miles out, in a driving rain, at night, and a hose blows?  I realize that other failures can occur, but this one seems like a no brainer to me, given the age of the hoses, the lack of knowledge most of us have about past maintenance on the vehicle, and the relative simplicity of doing the work.  Of course, if you only drive the thing around town, and are comfortable with killing the engine by loss of coolant, then running old hoses might be a risk you want to take.

Even with all new hoses, I carry "Rescue Tape."  Here, I'm probably benefiting from the well known fact that the failure prepared for is the one that won't happen.  If I didn't have the tape, two or three hoses would fail on each long trip.

mcneely