Well, with all that said, you must keep in mine 2 things. 1 -
the brakes changed in 1986 on the Vanagon, from 2 piston to 1 large
piston, and increased the surface area. 2 - Dot 4 is fully compatable
with Dot 3....but not the other way around.  Also, being that lord Bentley
can not see into the future, these manuals could have been written say,
in  1984, stating "DOT 3 if fine". Then 2 years later the brakes
are changed, and require Dot 4. Without more info. on the brake system,
the manual......it's hard to say. An easy way to know for sure is
to look at the cap on the master Cyl.

   I personal have had the brakes boil the fluid. It is one of the most
fearful times in your life, that you may even live thru. Sure beats
sky diving or bungy jumping. This is not a questionable item, for me,
at any cost.

            Eric                   86-VW4x4
            vw4x4@fyi.net          72-240z
            Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler

On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, Karl F Bloss wrote:

> Eric,
>
> You said someone gave dangerous advice in saying DOT 3 was OK.  I looked
> it
> up today in Bentley and they say that DOT 4 supercedes DOT 3 as of 1985.
> It sounds
> to me like DOT 3 was OK, but once the higher boiling point DOT 4 came
> out, VW
> decided to go with that.  They also said that they're fully compatible.
> I can't remember
> the page #, but it's under Brakes-Hydraulic.
>
> So go easy on us, ok?  :-)
>
> -Karl
> -----------------------
> Karl Bloss
> temporary e-mail address while I'm a road warrior: blosskf@juno.com
>
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