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busdaddy
Samba Member
Joined: February 12, 2004
Posts: 51125
Location: Surrey B.C. Canada, but thinking of Ukraine
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 Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:50 pm Post subject: Dealer recalls "back in the day" |
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As we were cruising along in the bus yesterday my son asked a question I really couldn't answer, "Did VW ever have any recalls on these when they were new?".
He's recently completed a school work experience gig at the local VW dealer, when he wasn't swapping out snow tires he was doing the apparently common door latch rod locking you out when it's cold and fuel pump recall repair jobs along with a few others, he also did a couple weeks at the Honda dealer with very similar stories.
Were there ever any recalls when buses were new?, or was most of it dealt with through service bulletins the next time the bus came in for a warranty mandated oil change and the owner never even knew? I've seen the service bulletins but don't recall ever seeing record of anything that said "have the customer bring it in right now". I'll admit I wasn't paying much attention when these were new, the only recalls I remember were the ones sensationalized by the media like the Pinto gas tank.
Every maker has issues, was VW at the time so meticulous that they worked the bugs out before it hit the market?, or were they just better at covering it up? Or did the customer of the day just not care because they bought a foreign economy car and that's what you should expect?
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SGKent 
Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2007
Posts: 41031
Location: Citrus Heights CA (Near Sacramento)
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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I found this webpage - don't know how accurate it is.
https://www.automd.com/recall/volkswagen_m/type-i_mm/
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rusty busty
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Joined: May 27, 2015
Posts: 310
Location: Vancouver BC
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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A little googling led me to a PDF of a report from 1973 with this in it.
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old DKP driver
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Joined: March 30, 2005
Posts: 4145
Location: Los Gatos,Ca.
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:19 pm Post subject: VW Bus recalls |
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Mark,
I started working at the dealer in 1971 and we did get (recalls & updates
weekly or Daily depending on the severity.
My notes drowned in 1982 during a flood.
the only ones I recall for our buses were :windshield fogging in the corners of the glass,
Varta battery failures,
rear side marker gasket seals leaking,
gas pedal stop breaking off..... Carburetor choke settings and idle speed control. Fuel pump pushrods for 1972 (unhardened tips)
When the EGR counter box was introduced there were also speedo cable
problems with kinking ,etc. I'm sure there are more but I can't remember.
You might ask 'Tram' also since he also was a VW tech back then.
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Xevin
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Joined: January 08, 2014
Posts: 7624
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 12:15 am Post subject: Re: Dealer recalls "back in the day" |
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| busdaddy wrote: |
Every maker has issues, was VW at the time so meticulous that they worked the bugs out before it hit the market?, or were they just better at covering it up? Or did the customer of the day just not care because they bought a foreign economy car and that's what you should expect? |
I'm not sure as I was only 3 years old when my bus was made. But, if you took today's auto recalls and what is considered to be worthy of a recall. Would there have been more Bus recalls back in the 70s? There are so many parts that are same same but different with different part numbers and some of the parts being different within a same model year. Would this speak to German engineers working out " The Bugs". I remember as a kid the issues of the Pinto and Corsair. But Jeez. In the 70s my dad had a Triumph Spitfire and my sister had a Fiat Spider. If there were ever two more pieces of crap (from a reliability standpoint) needing a recall at some point, then surely one of these would of had a recall. Yet I don't ever recall one. Perhaps they were just safe or the law not as stringent as maybe they are today. Or maybe access to the information was more difficult. Again, to young at the time to know or how the recall process worked. Seems like you hear about recalls all the time now on new vehicles. For a goof I looked up recalls on those two cars. And yes there are some. Didn't have internet back then. Only Ralph and snail mail 
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| 67rustavenger wrote: |
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!  |
| Clatter wrote: |
| Damn that Xevin... |
| skills@eurocarsplus wrote: |
I respect Xevin and he's a turd  |
| SGKent wrote: |
My God! Xevin and I 100% agree  |
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sjbartnik
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Joined: September 01, 2011
Posts: 5994
Location: Brooklyn
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 6:49 am Post subject: |
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Recalls then and now are only for safety-related issues, not reliability issues. Like in the image above, seat track separation during crashes or fuel tank leakage. These are issues that rise to a safety level where the manufacturer has to take the car back and fix it at no charge to the customer.
Stuff that doesn't rise to that kind of safety level issue would be handled through a technical bulletin which is not a recall. It's a memo to the dealer techs saying "hey if you see this problem, it could be this cause, we've had a lot of issues, try replacing x part with x-revised part."
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