On November 20, VWA replaced the heat exchange boxes, flapper valves, and
big rubber hoses on my '81 Westie.  The work was done by Hans Gelke, who
came into Tucson just for this.  I asked at the dealership about Mr. Gelke,
and was told he was a troubleshooter for Volkswagen and traveled all over
the world for them.  The example they gave me was that if there was an
accident and one of the people involved was blaming a problem with their
VW, Mr. Gelke would be the one sent to investigate.

He was assisted by the local service manager, and they did a nice job, even
noticing a couple of other minor problems and fixing them at no charge.
VOA even rented me a car to use while they had mine.

I asked Hans about the asbestos thing.  He said that a few thousand of the
heat exchangers had been made with an asbestos sheet in the bottom, and
that there was no way to identify these from the outside.  He also said
that the ones removed had been sent to a test facility where hot exhaust
and air was blown through them while they were being jounced and vibrated.
The air was run through a sub-micron filter which was then tested for
asbestos contamination, and none was found.

All in all, I was very happy with how they handled my car, and the service
I got from them.  The reason mine was done so late is that they had a bit
of trouble getting the new parts together.  My '81 was a California car
originally.

Bill    (SE Arizona)            (Bill@freeholder.com)
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You don't get peaches from an apple tree.
HTTP://www.freeholder.com