> Also,  The belly coolant pipes rusted through a couple of months ago and 
> I had the dealership deal with it, I'm not about to start trying to bend 
> those pipes correctly to fit.  But the dealership replaced them with some 
> sort of translucent hose.  Has anyone else ever had these installed?  Are 
> they better than the steel pipes?  If better why were they not OEM?
>

My '87 Syncro has plastic pipes running from the engine area under the
belly to the radiator area.  One thing I noticed poking around under there
is that gravel tends to get caught between the body and the pipes, and
also between the pipes themselves (they're wired together on my van).

I try to clean off the gravel, so it doesn't get a chance to wear a hole
or weak spot in the plastic.  I'm pretty they were OEM on my van, unless
they were replaced in one of the recalls.

-Jim
macklow@sybase.com