Ken you might reply to her that your lists own resident mechanical
engineer feels this is a total load of shit anyway because they are
not replacing parts that could sensibly be used to sample for
asbestos in the heating system.  Having been the recipient on the
'77, '81, and '78 now and seeing where asbestos was present in each
it is clear that the actual place asbestos might be present would of
course be down stream predominantly in the corrugated paper heater
tubes would be my bet.  If I was a VWoA engineer worth my degree I'd
be leaving all the asbestos laden components alone and replaceing the
main heater tube sampling the 15 years of accumulated sediment which
will of course be present in any corrugated pipe.  If this is clean
no problem if not, well then you got liability issues.  Removing and
replacing the actual asbestos laden parts (seals on '73-'79, heater
boxes on '80-'83) is really of no consequence and like most asbestos
removal would have been better left undone.  When contained the stuff
is relatively harmless unless you were to remove the parts,
particularly the seals, HOWEVER if indeed it was an asbestos mat
present in the bottoms of my '81 boxes, it was in rather severly
degraded condition and could well be spread through.  The campaign and the
response make no sense and don't hold water, but I sure enjoy all my
new heater boxes, the only reason I jumped on the wagon.

John
vwbus@netbiz.net