> 
> I've been talking with a couple of VW mechanics in Vermont who tell me that
> VW has been paying 80% of head gasket repairs.  (Which they tell me can run
> up to $3000.)
> 
> Ron
> 
This has really, really been confusing me, unfortunately we trashed
all the info about our '86 after I rolled her in '91 but round about
late '88 or early '89 I SWEAR we got a recall bulletin dealing with
retorqueing the heads, upon taking it to our dealer who at the time had
not yet sunk into the worst depths of VW dealerdom, they
pulled valve covers and I guess ascertained heads needed retorqueing.

Furthermore at their option they pulled the heads glassbeaded the carbon
off and replaced the head gaskets.  I KNOW THIS WAS DONE, watched them
reinstall the glassbeaded heads, all free of charge.

The service manager at the time was very helpful as mom was looking to
buy a car and they were really trying to sell, he said that VW dealers 
were doing this as a sort of secret extension to the head bolt retorque
recall, he said there were three stages, 1. retorque the bolts  2. pull
and glassbead clean the heads if pinging, low power or other signs
of carbon deposits,  or leakage replace gaskets and retorque.  3. If head
damage from leaky gaskets was severe, heads would be replaced.  They performed
up to stage 2 as a favor to us even though he told us nothing warranted
the glassbeading but since they weren't paying he didn't care (oh how
this attitude soon changed).  Certainly this was not a helpful dealer,
they were definitely getting reimbursed, the dealer was never that nice
even back in the old days.

This is why I have recently been confused by all the talk of having to
pay for head repair, certainly the policy if once in effect should still
be in effect if you find a good dealer and if your vehicle is still low
miles, the '87 Syncro I'm looking at for my dad had the engine replaced
at 65,000 for precisely these reason, blown head gasket and I guess it
got to far gone before the idiot owner did anything, the '86 Syncro Joel
recently listed from a Limbo add had similar head problems at 60,000,
frankly I urge everyone CONSULT ANOTHER DEALER THEN TALK TO THE DISTRICT
SERVICE MANAGER WHEN THEY COME ROUND.  However I note, this has gotten
me nowhere with recent small problems on the Corrado and I don't think
VW is really trying to help with warranty or especially out of warranty
work like they used to, in my opinon the new 10yr/100000 thing is
ludicrous and will boil down to covering only the most basicly important
components and still yet the dealer will try to find a way to chock
problems up to bad maintanence.

The only thing I might see is this pertaining to Wasserboxers up to say
'87 or so only, you know like they "fixed" the problem or say they did
at least and since '86's with 50,000 or so are rare and they can pawn
off problems with higher mileage old cars as due to their age, they may
have effectively abandoned the policy.  As a final note though, our '86
was run for at least a month in '88 with no coolant circulation, air
bubble in the radiator when level dropped a little, didn't know much
then. Our heads were still OK after a month of abuse with the little LED
coming on after about 40 miles driving each day.  This happened befor
they inspected them and we had no problems at 85,000 when she died. Go
figure. Anyway its a shame I trashed all the Van records and receits a
year or so ago or I would have proof of the removal glassbeading etc and
of the fact it cost us nothing, Sorry everyone.

John Anderson
ja@coe.wvu.edu
'71 Westy, '90 Corrado G60