On Wed, 5 Feb 1997, Maggie Adams wrote:

> Crawled under the 81 to do my first oil change as a newbie and the oil
> drain plug is stripped. Also the parts in the manual look different than
> what's there it shows a bolt requiring an allen wrench and mine is just a
> regular nut.

I think you're looking at the wrong page in the manual.  My '81 (I'm 
original owner) has a drain bolt which requires a regular 13mm wrench.  If 
the bolt is stripped, remove the oil strainer instead.  You'll need new 
gaskets for this, and be sure and clean the strainer.

> Should I just take it to a oil changer type place?  I really want to do
> this myself!

The ONE time I took my van to one of those places, here's what happened:

1) Kid employee stops me in the driveway and explains that "Volkswagens 
   don't have oil filters, just strainers, and we don't clean them."  I 
   assured him that my van had a filter.

2) After 10-15 minutes kid comes into the office to explain that "we 
   can't find the filter."  So I walk down into the oil pit and point it 
   out to them.  

3) After another 5-10 minutes the kid comes back to explain that "we 
   don't know where to check the fluids."  (This was one of those shops 
   where part of the "service" is to check brake fluid, windshield washer 
   fluid, etc.)  So I showed them how to pop the cover on the instrument 
   panel and look under the floor mat so they could check those items.

They should have paid me for the education!  Do it yourself.

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Tom Young               young@sherlock.SIMS.Berkeley.EDU
Lafayette, CA  94549    '81 Vanagon
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