James Lu x3702 writes:
> 
> 
> Howdy,
> 
> If you were in this, what would you do?
> 
> A '83 water-cooled with 113k miles starts showing signs of
> bad headgaskets. It will cost $1,200 to replace the gaskets.
> Besides either selling it or replacing the gaskets, what
> other reasonable option does the owner have? 
> 
> VW claims that they will not be responsible for this problem
> (even it is a well-known design flaw) for pre-1985 with 80k+ miles
> Vanagons. Does the owner still have any recourse?
> 
> Thanks for your comments.
> 
> Regards,
> James
> 
Yes, I would have been extremly diligent, like Joel, and would have
replaced the coolant from day one every year with the exact coolant
specified by Volkswagen, I would also have had  my head gaskets replaced
at the 60,000 mile mark whether they needed it or not and i would have
checked the radiator and coolant system for proper operation
 on a germanically and anally retentive basis of every month for the life
of the van.

In short, bite the bullet, and pay out the 1200 and be lucky your heads are 
-- not cracked. You are among the fortunate few who have not experienced
the worst case scenario.......DC

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David Carment
School of International Affairs
Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 5B6
voice - (613) 788-2600-6662
fax - (613) 788-2889
Email address: dcarment@ccs.carleton.ca
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