TheSamba.com :: View topic - What's the stupidest thing a "VW expert" has said

Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:26 pm

just about everone thats done a moderately hard job on a vw says they are an expert but this includes real experts which are old vw mechanics

my local AC vw mechanic who is a great guy so don't get me wrong, was talking to me about the proper way to adjust the electric choke on my '72 ghia and as i mentioned how poor my car runs for the first five minutes in the morning he butts in and says that can't be fixed "all air cooled volks ran like crap for the first five to ten minutes, thats how they are."
"you mean only when its like less than 40 degrees"
"no they always have done that"
"riiiiiight...?"
if that is so than how the hell did VW sellover 30,000,000+ AC VWs over the past 60 years?

strange :?

Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:47 pm

I think the dumbest thing I've ever heard from not necessarily a VW expert but just "expert" in general is "You should put a Porsche engine in there."

Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:18 pm

here let me put this .99 fuel filter right next to your dizzy and coil. :shock:

Sun Jan 15, 2006 5:54 pm

I like the "I had a '58 split window". :roll:

Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:35 pm

"All VW's sucks! :evil: ", I use to work for a VW Restoration shop and he would say that all of the time. :lol:

Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:55 pm

67jason wrote: here let me put this .99 fuel filter right next to your dizzy and coil. :shock:
Tis one makes sense to me... my beater 73 super that i bought for parts ran like poop and souded like it was missing... I thought it was electrical. I raplaced the fuel filter and all a suden it had enough power to spin the tires. :vw:

Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:55 pm

I had an "expert" tell me that the reason Ghia parts cost so much is that it's a Porsche with a VW emblem. Had another one tell me that early Beetles with the glassover headlights are type one Beetles and Beetles with upright headlights are type two. And I'm always getting the "put a Porsche motor in there" comment. Oh, and I can't forget the person who owned a '68 Super Beetle.

Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:01 pm

I asked my VW mechanic why he took the thermostat out of my 79 Beetle without my permission.

"Oh," he says, "nobody drives a nice car like yours in the winter any more, so we just take those out when we drop the engine."

Tue Jan 24, 2006 2:24 pm

I had one guy tell me that John Muir dosent know what he is talking about in his books, same guy also tried to tell me that super beetls came with a stock 250hp engine :roll: ...

Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:53 am

VWNewbie83 wrote: I had one guy tell me that John Muir dosent know what he is talking about in his books, same guy also tried to tell me that super beetls came with a stock 250hp engine :roll: ...

Actually, he was correct about Muir.

Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:38 pm

RedRail1 wrote: 67jason wrote: here let me put this .99 fuel filter right next to your dizzy and coil. :shock:
Tis one makes sense to me... my beater 73 super that i bought for parts ran like poop and souded like it was missing... I thought it was electrical. I raplaced the fuel filter and all a suden it had enough power to spin the tires. :vw:

The point of that was the location of the filter, not that there was one. Worst place to put it, really.
Better to have it under the car, either next to the tranny or under the gas tank.

Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:45 pm

I'd like to see the old-style fuel pumps come back into production; they had a fuel screen built-in that you could clean. That would put an end to the eternal where-do-you-put-the-$.99 fuel filter debate.

Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:18 pm

79SuperVert wrote: I'd like to see the old-style fuel pumps come back into production; they had a fuel screen built-in that you could clean. That would put an end to the eternal where-do-you-put-the-$.99 fuel filter debate.
Not meaning to hijack this thread.... But i have one of those old fuel pumps but its sized. Just wondering if you can rebuild them? :?:

Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:43 pm

79SuperVert wrote: I'd like to see the old-style fuel pumps come back into production; they had a fuel screen built-in that you could clean. That would put an end to the eternal where-do-you-put-the-$.99 fuel filter debate.

you start by buying a good filter and leaving the 99 cent one on the counter...

Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:32 am

The official factory mounting place for those "99c." inline filters is under the car in the flexible line in front of the engine, if anybody cares. :wink: What 'debate'? :?

Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:47 am

Factory? What factory? I thought the fuel pump for carb engines had a built-in screen, and then when they went to FI the filter went up front under the tank. VW never used the 99 cent filters.

I just don't buy the whole it's-dangerous-to-put-a-plastic-filter-in-the-engine-compartment argument. As long as the fuel line doesn't pull the nipple out of the carb, there's no fire hazard due to having the filter on the line. And if there is a fire in the engine compartment, filter or not, those rubber fuel lines are going to melt anyway.

Now if you're talking about a good metal in-line filter then I agree with you that I would put it under the car, but firmly mounted to something solid and not just hanging off the fuel line. I just got tired of trying to evaluate all the pros and cons and decided to leave the plastic filter in the engine compartment and tie down the nipple on the carb with wire.

Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:50 am

79SuperVert wrote: Factory? What factory? I thought the fuel pump for carb engines had a built-in screen, and then when they went to FI the filter went up front under the tank. VW never used the 99 cent filters.

I just don't buy the whole it's-dangerous-to-put-a-plastic-filter-in-the-engine-compartment argument. As long as the fuel line doesn't pull the nipple out of the carb, there's no fire hazard due to having the filter on the line. And if there is a fire in the engine compartment, filter or not, those rubber fuel lines are going to melt anyway.

Now if you're talking about a good metal in-line filter then I agree with you that I would put it under the car, but firmly mounted to something solid and not just hanging off the fuel line. I just got tired of trying to evaluate all the pros and cons and decided to leave the plastic filter in the engine compartment and tie down the nipple on the carb with wire.

It was a factory service bulletin. To the best of my recollection, the OE VW pumps quit using the internal screen in the early 1970s when they went to an alternator on the T1 carbed engine.

Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:54 am

Wow. That's interesting. So you're saying that VW recommended installing an in-line fuel filter under the car? That would be an interesting bulletin to read.

I just wish I could find a source for the original style fuel pump. The Brazilian ones aren't serviceable.

Fri Jan 27, 2006 12:21 pm

79SuperVert wrote: Wow. That's interesting. So you're saying that VW recommended installing an in-line fuel filter under the car? That would be an interesting bulletin to read.

I just wish I could find a source for the original style fuel pump. The Brazilian ones aren't serviceable.

About the best way to source OE pumps is to get 'em from junkyard cars or in the Classifieds, and overhaul them. The same with carbs- I am always on the lookout for original German carbs to rebush/ refurbish.

As to an inline filter, first, I never said that VW recommended adding one. it was a bulletin stating where it should be mounted if it was there. It was specified that it should be mounted in that way so that a) it would catch particles BEFORE the pump as the built- in screen would have, and b) If it leaked, it would dump fuel on the ground under the car, eliminating the risk of fire. Like I said, to the best of my recollection, NONE of the tilted top fuelpumps in 1973- 74 cars with alternators had the internal screen, even the original German ones, and these were the cars that the bulletin originally applied to.

I remember switching MANY inline filters from the engine compartment to under the car at the dealer in the late 1970s. Our shop foreman had us doing it as a 'courtesy' on all services, including lube and oil service, where it was found that the customer had one mounted incorrectly on the car, because lots of cars seemed to be going up in flames because of leaky filters. Then, as now, on the older models with the screen folks were constantly trying to 'improve' on the factory design, and independent shops were adding these damn filters like mad... ALWAYS, it seemed, in the line between the pump and carb, perfectly poised over the distributor, ready to cause a devastating engine fire at any time. :roll: This also seemed to be a 'USA only' sort of a trend; most Europeans either didn't add another filter, or if they did, they put it under the car.

Fri Jan 27, 2006 12:23 pm

Thanks for the info.