I was told some years ago to "not bother" about valve
adjustments in the Diesel unless there were "obvious" problems,
since the adjustment is fairly arduous involving spacer-disk 
placement/replacement rather than a conventional tappet adjustment.
This was with a youngish Jetta at the time (`81, 60K miles).
Of course, I never had any such obvious problems... and my `82 Diesel
Vanagon with 88K miles has never had a valve adjustment to my knowledge
either.

   > 1) The first "injector" is leaking diesel from the threads (YECH!).
   > Couldn't get a wrench on it. Looks like a "Special Service Tool".
   > 

   > 2) I was told the valves should be adjusted, and this would improve
   > performance. Is this true? Is this normal periodic Maintenance?
   > 

I also would like an opinion from a Diesel-valve-adjustment experienced
owner.  In any case, I'd take care of the injector leak first before
attempting to diagnose/prescribe further "performance" problems in a Diesel,
performance being a relative term.

Chris Radcliffe
chrisr@informix.com