Hi, Pete - 

Hmmmmm.  This one rings familiar.  Our 93 EV MV 5 speed
has something over 85,000 miles on it now, and the one
and only 'big' thing that has ever gone wrong with it
was something very similar to what's happened to you.

It was just about exactly two years ago, when the EV was
at about 51,500 miles.  A noise appeared sounding like a 
bearing vibration - it tracked engine speed, etc - it got
progressively and rapidly worse.  A quick decision to take
it to the dealer.  On the highway on the way to the dealer
the sound got *much* worse, then *SNAP* (or something) and
the thing gave out.  Pulled off to the side & popped the
lid.  Bad smelling smoke - the serpentine belt was not only
broken, it was burning!  Little teenie flames - I just blew
them out.  Turned out the bearings in the electromagnetic
clutch on the end of the compressor had siezed, causing the
clutch to sieze, causing the belt to self-destruct from
running over a siezed pulley.  Took out a bunch of other
stuff in the process - compressor, compressor bracket, 
receiver-dryer, I forget what else.

We were under the time limit for warranty service but
over the mileage limit, and the VW place weren't going
to honor the warranty.  I fired off a letter to VW of A,
pointing out this and that.  Within a day or two the dealer
had called and offered to knock about 2/3 off the repair
bill.  I should have stuck for all of it, but they had my
van and I wanted it back.  I settled.

As I said, this remains the only blemish on the EV's
reliability in our experience with it.  Other than this
it has been amazingly trouble-free, and the overall 
driving impression it leaves is that of a vehicle largely
unchanged from when it left the dealer's lot in Anchorage
many, many miles and stories and experiences ago.

Nevertheless, I've heard of a few other EV's going through
something very much like this specific thing, and it seems
to me there's something VW ought to have owned up to here.

Stick to your guns, and hang in there!  

Michael Pelikan
'74 Super Sun Bug - see it at  http://www.atlcom.net/~csaari/sunbug
'93 EuroVan MV 5 speed