In a message dated 98-06-26 10:52:05 EDT, Wolfsburg wrote:

> This morning my Vanagon is getting it's sixth water pump put in!!  Is it
>  common for the Vanagon to have this much problems with the water pump.
>  My Vanagon has 130,500 miles on it.  This is the approximate times I had
>  to replace pumps:
>      1    6,000          covered under 2 year/24,0000 warranty
>      2    23,900        covered under 2 year/24,000 warranty
>      3    48,000        covered under emission warranty
>      4    74,000        paid for
>      5    96,000        paid for
>      6    130,500      paid for

This is certainly NOT common.  I've had the water pump replaced in my Vanagons
('87 & '88) once each.  88 at 70,000 miles, 87 at 100,000 miles.  Since then
I've put 55,000 miles on the 88 and 59,000 miles on the 87.
How are the water pumps failing.  Too much belt tension can cause excessive
bearing wear and thus pump failure.

Regards,
Jim Davis