along with the earlier comment regarding online forums and engine
issues, I'm quite sure other forums like the vw vortex see their fair share
of engine or engine related complaints. "2.slow" in the mk3 forum  comes to
mind. (But then that comment likely comes from a younger person. "More
power please!" BTDT.  Lol ).

Speaking of support systems and  maintenance, I saw first hand just how bad
a mess a wobbling WBX crank pulley can make of an engine. I truly hope that
they didn't have to have the engine cases split open. We did our best and
mostly out of interest, I tried to ressurect the bolt threads (wishful
thinking) with a small file but all to no avail. The threads were erased by
at least one half their depth, the woodruff key was a shadow of its' former
self and the notch in crank snout was a little angled. Hopefully the crank
snout metal is harder than the crank pulley bolt. (Sure felt and
looked like it). But I digress.

This could have happened to any engine under a less than watchful eye or
optimistic thinking owner.

I'm prompted to recall a saying my Dad was fond of: "cars cost money".

Neil.

On Thursday, November 27, 2014, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:

> Was going to stay silent on this one but I can't.....For sure, some people
> do get remarkable dependability from their own WBX motors, but from
> everything I hear, read and see..that is the exception rather than
> rule...Spin it like a Politician , but there it is....they are known to be
> 'blower-uppers' to be 'leakers' and 'dogs' for power.   Or so say most
> everyone with experience with those motors...I also see people frequently
> spending rather large sums to have major work done on them....and I wonder
> why they do, but that is personal choice.
>   I had extensive flat four VW experience when I began looking for
> vans....after reading up carefully on the Vanagon and it's dependability I
> ruled-out the WBX Vangon as a vehicle because I didn't want another VW to
> work on all the time, a van that statistics were showing to be pretty
> sketchy, motor-wise...I looked extensively for one with a Subiemotor that I
> could afford....no dice, people thought these were worth more than I wanted
> to pay for a van...I ended up, almost sight unseen, with an inline VW van
> and it's been good to me so far.....just what I was looking for in a
> van...simple, economical, dependable and cheap....When my inline motor
> blows up I'll get another for a few hundred bucks at the
> junkyard...probably less than a set of headgaskets for a WBX
> motor...grin...Happy turkey day everyone.
>
>

--
Neil n

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