The beetle and myself somewhere in Alsace, France
(first posted 7/23/2016) After missing out on a beautiful Ford Taunus 12 M I was using the classified ad to scout for prospects. A 1968 VW 1300 in my price range showed up somewhere in the Black Forest. It looked good to me and drove alright. None the less I asked the owner if she would be willing to have it checked out by a mechanic. She agreed and drove the car to Mr. Eustachi’s garage where he worked. It needed a clutch but was otherwise fine. I purchased the car and Mr. Eustachi and Werner, a friend since boyhood, helped putting it in.
Lots of beetles in contemporary Gengenbach.
Owning a VW beetle was nothing special at that time. Among friends and family it was the most popular car. C had a white one, Markus’ girlfriend had a red one, Markus himself had a Simca 1100, Franz had a white one, Hans had none, Sancho’s was white, Hubert’s was blue according to him and gray according to everyone else because he is colorblind. Fritz had a white one and Karl had a cabriolet. Gerd had FIAT 850 and the other Hans had a 2CV, then a Peugeot 204 Cabriolet.
Next door neighbor had good taste in cars.
Frat house neighbor Wilhelm owned a charcoal metallic 1961 Jaguar S-Type with the 3.8L 6 cylinder, automatic gearbox and original wire wheels. Study buddy Hans-Heinrich got his father’s 200D and study buddy Thomas chose to spend his dad’s money on a brand new VW Scirocco. “Motorrad Willy” had a white Käfer as a winter beater and Werner called his the REDDEVIL (sic) for obvious reasons. I also made two friends in some of my lengthy hospital stays and both, Volker and Peter were driving beetles, orange and gold respectively. Peter’s girlfriend Petra had a white one. And mine was hunter green. I could go on but you might as well establish a Beetles/Others ratio in the roughly contemporary postcard of Gengenbach above.
Picture found at imdb.
I put that beetle to good use going to my medical appointments, going home and visiting friends. If I stepped on it it went 130 km/h. Once on the way from Mannheim to Heidelberg the needle even went to 140 km/h for about five minutes. Then it made a horrible noise. I got off the gas and stepped on the clutch. The engine died and I coasted to a halt on the shoulder of the autobahn. The exhaust valve of the 3rd cylinder let go. This did not happen to my lead-footed friend Volker with his orange beetle because his VW dealer caught it at 75000 or so km and replaced that valve as routine maintenance.
Common cause of engine failure: dropped exhaust valve in cylinder 3.
Because of the popularity of the beetle it was not hard to find a matching and reasonably priced engine. From the clutch replacement I knew how to swap it out. The frat house neighbor with the Jaguar let me use his garage and tools and I was back on the road in short order. This was just in time to give the engine a quick shake down before hitting the road for Italy.
Traveling to sunny Mediterranean countries made sense for me because the intense UV light helped my condition. Either I did that or I would spend the same amount of time in a hospital. The hospital’s treatments were state of the art for that time but often felt worse than the condition itself. Therefore whenever possible I went for the beaches.
The white stuff at the end of July! (picture found on the web).
On July 28 of that year a lady friend, a student of the Italian and English languages, and two paying passengers with all our stuff piled in the Käfer and hit the A5 South to Basel, Switzerland, then up into the Alps over the St. Gotthard Pass. The engine ran without a hitch. When I swapped the engines out I allowed myself one omission just because I was getting tired that night. I did not connect the heater control cables. Up here at the St. Gotthard Pass the temperatures were nearing the freezing point and the road was covered with sleet and more of it was falling out of the clouds. We were cold.
View of Portovenere in summer, Liguria, Italy
The weather was much better on the second day. We stayed at Genova over night and dropped off one of our passengers. Then we continued along the Ligurian coast. There we were slowed down to a crawl by beach goers who crossed the road on foot. Italy is known as the “Teutonen Grill” for the prevalence of German sun worshipers.
We decided to find a route over the spine of the Abruzzi mountains to Civitavechia to drop off our second passenger. This turned out great. Imagine the scenery of your favorite Spaghetti Western with villages that looked like ghost towns, desolated with the exception of that one mongrel dog seeking shade. I was speeding through them at 90km/h making this stretch of road my very own Mille Milia.
International friendships were a benefit of the frat house. Every summer we would rent empty rooms to international students who participated in a four week German course at the University. Rosalba became like a family member and she invited us to visit her and her family in Catania and Leonforte.
Catania, Sicily, early 80’s I guess.
We toured the island and visited Syracuse, Agricento, Palermo and of course Catania and Leonforte. In Leonforte we stocked up on her dad’s oranges, picked straight from the trees. He planted the trees but no one would buy his oranges.
Sicilian oranges on the backseat.
In Catania we witnessed a police Alfa Romeo Giulia pursuing a guy in a FIAT 128 at high speed. The driver of the FIAT was red in his face and his hands were white knuckled. The whole scene took mere seconds. It looked very much like this clip except the chased car was a FIAT and I don’t know if it ended in a shoot-out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN-4QkTC8rc
I came back to Heidelberg a fan of Italy. I picked up the law books, studied and participated in the frat’s functions. A favorite event was a rally, not a race but a car scavenger hunt in and around Heidelberg. I partnered with a frequent guest of the house, a BKA detective (Bundeskriminalamt = FBI equivalent). His investigation skills and my juristic wording in answering the scavenger hunt questionnaire gave us a distinct advantage. We won. We enjoyed a round of applause and were given the honor of preparing next year’s rally. Of course I had to do it all by myself as the detective was busy rounding up Baader-Meinhof gang members. I really got to know Heidelberg and its surroundings very well. And the beetle didn’t miss a beat.
One cold Saturday in the winter though I was traveling from my hometown Achern to Heidelberg and something strange happened: the fuel gauge dropped very fast. So fast that I could only explain it by a leak. I stopped and I could not find a leak. This is not a good time to get stuck. Shops and garages are closed and won’t open until Monday morning. Near Bruchsal I got off the autobahn hoping to find a garage that might still be open. I was lucky in a small village. The mechanic was nice enough to have a look and couldn’t find a leak either. He encouraged me to carry on. I did carry on, scared as I was. The beetle made it.
Next day I was trying to figure out what was going on. I turned the key and the gauge was dead. At some point I disconnected the sending wire at the tank and reconnected it. The gauge worked again. The unusually cold temperatures must have shrunk the connector and increased the electrical resistance, thus dropping the needle.
Other little things happened. The horn started blowing when I turned the wheel. The wire that goes up inside the steering column chafed trough the insulation and caused a short. The starter failed. The fan belt broke, the speedometer cable broke and the tires wore out.
That was a good thing. When I bought the car it was rolling on four Pneumant tires. This brand may not be familiar to you because it is East German. When one pair was worn to 1 mm tread depth I replaced it with new tires and put these on the front wheels. The idea was to hasten the wear on the remaining Pneumant.
This made for some interesting handling characteristics. The Pneumant were about as grippy as a hockey puck on ice. On wet pavement the rear broke out in any corner with barely touching the accelerator. The excellent tires on front made it a piece of cake to catch the car. I chauffeured my car full of frat brothers when this happened. I got off the gas, counter steered and accelerated away in one fluid motion, totally bored. Of course the frat brothers had no idea and freaked out. They were about to beat me up when I said: “The rear tires are Pneumant from the GDR and they brake out when it’s wet. The front tires are really great so don’t worry!”
Indeed, they were great: Semperit. They were at least as good as the famous Michelin radials. Soon I had Semperit on all four wheels. What a handling and safety upgrade they provided!
I did not modify the beetle. Most changes are “verboten” anyway and those that are allowed have to be checked by the TüV (MOT). However, I wrapped the steering wheel with leather and I found a VDO quartz watch cheaply and I mounted that. The previous owner put some magnetic ladybugs on the dashboard and my mom gave me a magnetic plaque of Saint Christopherus who carried little Jesus across troubled water. It looked quite livable in the cabin.
Ferrari F1 testing at their Maranello track.
That winter (78/79 I believe) I reconnected with Werner and we went for another trip to Italy during the summer. We took one of our Italian friends home to Padova and visited another in Castelerano di Regio Emiglia. That is just a few kilometers from Maranello. When we stopped by the Scuderia it was closed. Only the lobby was open and guarded by two uniformed security guards. We asked them if we could sit in that F1 car that graced the lobby. They allowed us. What a feeling it was to sit in the same car that Gilles Villeneuve piloted to GP victories.
Werner
Wolfgang
and Gilles.
Was it the same car? I cannot find a picture with Gilles in a car with the number 11.
My VW 1300 in the Abruzzi mountains.
With all that traveling I started to feel the shortcomings of the beetle: noisy, crammed and relatively thirsty. It also needed constant correcting to go straight. I was pretty good at that. Once a passenger asked why I keep moving the steering wheel when we go straight. I let her do the steering for while and we were dancing a Waltz in our lane: left-2-3, left-2-3. I could feel in my fingertips when the car wanted to change direction and I countered early by applying very little pressure. The heating system had idiosyncrasies as well. You got better heat when you opened all registers and opened the vent windows too. But when the heat exchangers burnt through some exhaust gases were blown into the cabin. I anticipated to keep traveling because I had a good enough excuse. Thus I longed for a more suitable car. A visitor to the frat house had an aging Audi 60 that I liked.
Audi 60.
TüV was coming up again and I knew I had some work to do. The upright connectors of the double tube front suspension were rusted through and there was no chance of them passing inspection. Just recently frat bother Markus’ girlfriend had to retire her red Käfer with a busted engine.
It ran better than ever for all of 5 minutes and then the exhaust valve of the 3rd cylinder let go. They allowed me to pull the front axle off this car. Again the neighbor with the Jag let me use his garage and tools.
The job required messing with the brake hydraulics which was new territory for me. When I thought everything was in place I took it to the TüV station. On the way there I heard a pop and then a clack with every steering move. The exam was a disaster. The steering gear was loose on its mount (ah, that’s what popped!) and the brake pressures were all over the place. That clearly is a fail. I fully agree with that. But then he continued to fill his sheet with red marks as if he had an unlimited supply of pens. As the sheet went from white to red my face went the other way. These were some of the infractions: the vent window closer was broken, a tear in the skirting below the hood needed welding, the pedal assembly needed lubrication, and plenty more nit-pickings. Everyone hated the TüV.
My brother runs an errand with the beetle.
A frat brother pointed me to his favorite “Auto Klinik” right in the old part of Heidelberg. They showed some heart and fixed everything on the sheet at reasonable cost. It still hurt though. Soon I sold the Käfer to a student who planned long trips herself.
This beetle was important car to me because I gained much experience with it. In fact I thought I had it much longer than my reconstructed time line would suggest. However, I don’t think it was a superior car in terms of reliability and other properties. Thus it was not hard to part with it.
Promotional picture by Volkswagen AG.
What’s next? An Audi 60?
Your TUV is a tough inspection but not often if I have it right, we have a WOF (warrant of fitness) inspection every six months my Citroen’s WOF expired today I’ll book it in at my favourite garage on Monday for its check, the guy who does my inspections has a beetle in his workshop though it may by now be fixed it had brake issues though the rest of it was ok he’d bought it for his wife he also has a couple of V8 4 speed Marlins and a Saab ragtop and there was a 1926 Rolls Royce in for repairs when I had the Hillman inspected a few months ago its an interesting place to go four times a year
There is a big difference between TuV and WOF. The TuV at that time was a state company with monopoly. Mechanics at the garage could not hand out TuV certification.they only could get your car ready for you to take it there or they could take it there for you. The inspections were required every 2 years. This monopoly and garage business acted like that proverbial rock and the hard place, usually leading to a significant slimming of the wallet. Today the monopoly has been broken up but the car owner still face the same hurdle.
Here you see them lining up for the TuV inspection, like cattle at the slaughter house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technischer_%C3%9Cberwachungsverein
VTNZ (vehicle testing New Zealand) has the monopoly for COF inspections of commercial vehicles taxis hire cars heavy trucks etc it is a much more stringent test than that applied to private passenger cars but is still six monthly none of it as tough as a TUV test though.
I do distinctively recall those inspections in the 1970s!
As a boy, the whole experience was fascinating for me while excruciatingly frustrating for my parents. My parents had to drive from one stage to next: one for suspension, one for steering, one for tyres, and so forth. Some stages required us to stay in the vehicle while others made us step out and observe the inspectors going through the motion.
At one stage, we were led down to the lower chamber to view the chassis, suspension, exhaust, etc. That was very impressionable for a young boy like me. My favourite part was seeing those fluorscent green glass plates that showed the amount of tread wear.
If one component did not meet the specification even barely, the car failed the inspection. They must be remedied and wholly reinspected (yes, the whole run!). My grandfather got hot and bothered every time there was a tiniest problem with his 1968 Mercedes-Benz 250 (W115). One day in 1984, he had enough and bought a secondhand 1980 250 (W123) just to spite those anal retentive inspectors.
That is exactly how it was. Thank you, Oliver Twist.
#3 exhaust valve lets go before the others because the oil cooler is mounted where it blocks some of the cooling air flow to #3 cylinder… Thankfully never had this happen to one of mine! Great stories and no rose-colored glasses looking at the Beetle here! (c:
Did you know that the ignition timing for cylinder 3 was retarded by 3 degrees for that reason?
No, I’ve never run across that before – interesting!
If you happen to have a distributor laying around have a look at the for cams. I bet you can identify the #3 cam right away.
Yep VW knew about that problem from day two.
This helps to answer a question I’d wondered about. I owned many VWs and had the same experience. It’s an inferior car.
The picture of the valve fused with piston #3 looks all too familiar. No excuse for that perpetual design flaw. There are other places to put the oil cooler.
I had wondered if German discipline and maintenance made a big difference. In the hands of precise people with all the right tools and skills, would VWs be more reliable? And the answer is clearly No.
Its a design flaw on the upright motors the later pancake engines were better but still die regularly.
The pancake motors indeed did correct the oil cooler problem. However they did fail as you mention if you did not regularly adjust the valves. (as I describe below).
Also pancake motors had a rubber bellows that connected the fan shroud to the body of the car. This is where the engine would get fresh cool air.
The problem was the rubber boots would get brittle from heat over time to fall apart. After the bellows failed instead of sucking in cool air it was sucking in hot air that just passed through the engine. So the whole engine ran hot.
Lots of type 3 engines overheated because of failure to replace that air intake bellows. I rebuilt an engine on a ’66 Fastback and eventually sold it to my parents. It started running poorly at around 100k miles and when I looked at it the bellows was torn up and a cylinder head had cracked (#1 and #2 right side). A new bellows and rebuilt head fixed the damage and it ran well once again.
When VW came out with the dual port cylinder head (1971 if I recall) they moved the oil cooler out of the main cooling air stream using a modified fan and fan shroud. The air from the oil cooler would then exit through the rear sheet metal. That fixed the #3 cylinder overheating problem.
The other problem was that you needed to adjust the valves every 5,500 miles or at least every tune-up. The valves cooled when they closed. If the exhaust valves got tight they would run hot because they were not fully closing. The #3 exhaust valve always went first because it ran the hottest.
Retarded timing would also cook the #3 exhaust valve.
In 1968 the car should be a 1500, not a 1300. (At least in the states) 1966 was the last 1300.
In Europe, one could buy Beetles with 1200, 1300 and 1500 cc engines for a number of years. In the US, there was no choice. The 1300 was the most popular (for good reasons) in Europe. It had the best balance of performance vs. fuel economy.
Most of my experience was with the dual port 1600 Beetles. As long as you changed the oil and adjusted the valves promptly at 3K mile intervals, these lasted comfortably beyond 100K miles. A ’75 I bought new that was passed among a circle of friends went nearly 200K before something serious failed in the engine. Once I did see a #3 exhaust valve need replacing when I performed a valve adjustment on a neighbor’s ’72 Super, I told him to take it to a shop for a valve replacement before the valve broke, which he did and the car served him well after that. I don’t think I have rose colored glasses, you really had to fastidiously maintain the Beetle, but if you did, it served well.
Great stories, Wolfgang!
@ Ohwonnesten The super Beetle dual ports had two problems.
The rubber boots always cracked that connected the center intake manifold to the dual intake manifold that bolted to the heads. This created a vacuum leak. If not fixed the car idled rough and those cylinders ran lean. Lean will burn the valves. You must have been on top of that.
The other problem was that the Super Beetle dual port heads cracked at the spark plugs.
Yeah, I had one boot crack after 12 years/53K miles. So I cut a bicycle tube and patched it with that and a hose clamp. Not really a proper solution, but I was planning to sell the car soon. It deserved better but I didn’t want to go to the extra work.
Thankfully, I never saw a cracked head.
The 1600cc twin port had a casting fault that caused cracking of the oil gallery behind the flywheel, the only cure was new Brazillian engine casings that didnt have that flaw.
Paul’s answer beat me to it. My first new car was a 66 1300. This car has the earmarks of the next style with the upright headlights. I think the 1300 was available for years outside of the US. Have no idea why the change was made in 67 here but they changed a bunch of things (12V, upright headlights, rear suspension,(that may have been 68) flat hubcaps etc). Possibly better on the freeways with the 1500. Only about a 3 horse increase iirc. No idea about the torque.
Unfortunately I did not leave my little car stock. Judson supercharger and a few other things. Went bracket racing. The car lasted but I could read the handwriting on the wall. Bought a 69 Cornet 440 and wish I could say I never looked back but I did. Now I remember every time I see one.
Starting in 1971 VW offset the oil cooler and moved the (improved design similar to Type 3) into a extension in the fan housing to avoid blocking the air flow to #3 cylinder. This helped, but, especially in the buses the #3 was still the valve to fail first. It’s true that VW did retard #3 cylinder 3 degrees on it’s engines. Some mechanics would set a couple of extra thousandths of clearance in #3 exhaust valve when adjusting as well, although this was not a VW recommended procedure.
Mt first car was a ’66 Beetle 1300, the only year for this displacement in the US. My dad bought it new, and around 1970 at about 70k miles his engine failed on a hot August day in So Cal. He had been working double shifts, and had drove for about 40 miles at around 65, as fast as the car would go. He wondered why it wouldn’t go as fast it should, but kept it floored as fast as it would go. The engine seized, and as he pulled to the side he realized the car was in 3rd gear the whole time! He has it towed to the dealership and they replaced it with a factory long block.
He stopped working double shifts after that. At least when I bought the car from him in 1972, it had a low mileage rebuilt engine. Too bad I totaled it in less than a year after I got it.
drove for about 40 miles at around 65, as fast as the car would go ???
A 1300 would run day all day long at exactly 78 mph, assuming the highway was flat. My brother’s 1300 went well over 100k miles on the original engine, and spent much of it s life running at that (or close to that speed). Never had an engine problem. 65 in a 1300 is loafing.
My two 1200s would run exactly 72 mph flat out, and I drove them at speed much of the time, or at least 65, and both went over 100k miles on their original engines.
Overheating the third cylinder was caused by lugging the engine in hot weather (not shifting into third on grades, etc.), or things like mis-adjusted timing, etc. Undoubtedly, some properly-cared for VW did just drop valves. But many ran wide-open day in-day out, and lasted over 100k miles in the process.
Paul: his dad had a senior moment and was in 3rd gear all the time.
We were surprised dad admitted the mistake. Out of character for him!
That picture of Gengenbach reminds me of my trip to Germany in the late 1970’s. It seems there were millions of Kaefers everywhere. And BMWs in that safety orange. One of my older cousins had a 5 series in that color. It seemed so strange to me to have such a nice car, but painted like a child’s toy. Ah, the seventies…
Wolfgang, Your COALs are a Saturday morning treat. It’s nice to see what automotive life is like in other places of this world.
I agree with Ed (above), you remember the past without the rose-colored-glasses syndrome that affects so many of us (myself included).
Regarding the TUV inspections, here in New Jersey USA we used to have annual and comprehensive safety and emissions inspections. Now NJ (and about 30 other states) have emissions-only testing every other year, primarily to save the state money. States refer to statistics that imply the lack of safety inspections doesn’t have much of an impact on actual safety on the road, but statistics are easily molded to meet whatever objective one wants to reach. And new cars don’t need any inspection for 5 years (which with today’s cars seems reasonable).
Of course the police are always on the lookout for inoperable lights and issue lots of “failure to maintain lamps” citations.
Great story. You seem to have a lot of friends and one very generous neighbor.
Our bi-annual inspection regime was introoduced at the behest of the RMTA retail motor traders association as a method of guarenteeing them an income stream from inspections repairs and sales of new cars safety wasnt even a consideration, my father was a life member of the RMTA, it was he who gave me this nugget of information, WOF inspections predate his membership and are still in force long after hes gone
“Now NJ (and about 30 other states) have emissions-only testing every other year, primarily to save the state money.”
Hmmm. How could the states NOT MAKE money at the cost of car owners with a comprehensive safety test? The TuV charges a hefty fee for all that good work they do and the equipment they have. To be honest: the TuV prevents accidents from happening and saves lives. However, their inspectors have good jolly sadistic time conducting their inspections.
NJ inspection stations only inspect (at no cost to the driver other than time). If the car fails a big “FAILED” sticker is put on the windshield. It’s up to the car owner to find a repair shop, get the car repaired, and then go back and see if the car now passes the inspection.
Repeat as needed, depending on the quality of the repairs and the quality of the state inspector’s use of the emissions testing machine.
We have the option of going to state approved “private” inspection station where repairs can be made by the same person who does the inspection, but there is a fee for the inspection itself.
I find the latter technique a better use of my time. The older I get, the more valuable time becomes to me. I also ask the private inspector to do regular services like oil changes, tire rotations, etc. before they test the emissions.
Not sure about this, but I think a car might have cleaner emissions with fresh new oil in the crankcase. Anyone care to chime in on this rumor?
“Not sure about this, but I think an older car might test cleaner with new oil in the crankcase. Anyone care to chime in on this rumor?”
I heard that as well. I think it is quite possible within a narrow band of conditions. The fresh oil has plenty active detergents to scrub pollutants such as unburnt fuel. A lot of pollutants are created right at the cylinder walls because the temperatures there are lower.
Maybe “Bobistheoilguy” on the web has the definitive answer.
No question about it ~ fresh oil reduces the HC emissions sharply , for a while at least .
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I used to do pre smog testing and this was an easy way to squeeze marginal cars through the test .
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FWIW , replacing the two piece cheapo factory exhaust valves prevents them from ever breaking .
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I used to have _maroon_ colored glasses but now realize that old air cooled VW’s were fun and could be reliable but decidedly UNSAFE (I’ve seen more wrecked ones than most ever will) and even when rust proofed don’t do well in road salt nor near the ocean .
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Wolfgang , do you recall what model year your Kafer was ? .
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GREAT story telling here ! .
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-Nate
I find this supposition hard to swallow. Emission testing is all about what happens in the combustion chamber. The amount of oil in the combustion chamber is absolutely minute, unless the car is burning lots of oil.
Could someone please explain the logic behind this supposition? I’m not seeing it.
And no, anecdotal evidence is not enough for me. Science, please.
@ Nate: 1968 VW 1300, 40 DIN hp, standard 4 speed transmission.
Nate: It’s in the headline!
Re: Clean oil and emissions
On a carbureted car, the choke and richer mixtures caused some gasoline to wash into the oil, and the vapor was sucked into the carburetor via the PCV system.
By changing the oil, the fuel-rich vapor was minimized. I can’t imagine this would be much help, however, with a modern car that doesn’t run the engine as rich when it’s cold and has fuel injection for precise metering. I’m guessing that changing the oil also wouldn’t help a car that was grossly out of passing range.
Trying to satisfy Paul’s request for science I came across a article on oil contributing to particulate matter in Diesel engines. Keeping that in mind I like to offer another hypothesis:
Old oil stinks because it contains a lot of accumulated HCs. In operation those HCs get vaporized at a a higher rate and enter the intake manifold by way of the PCV system. Fresh oil contains much less HCs and thus does not add pollutants to the exhaust gases. At the margin this could be the difference of passing the test or not.
Still not science but at least plausible.
It worked in a badly oil burning and smoking ’95 Saturn SL2 we had. With fresh oil it really cut down on the blue smoke (for a few miles). Fresh 20-50 oil and filter and straight to the testing station worked, as it passed the sniffer test after it failed the first time. The engine itself about a year later broke the timing chain at around 260k miles and we junked it. This turned out to be it’s final emission test.
“Of course the police are always on the lookout for inoperable lights and issue lots of “failure to maintain lamps” citations. ”
In Germany they don’t have to do that. They simply set up a road check and pull drivers over randomly. They ask for the papers while putting their noses in the windows to check for alcohol breath. In the states road checks are hard to implement because would create an outcry of profiling.
In Ohio, there are plenty of OVI (Operating Vehicle while Intoxicated) checkpoints that randomly pull drivers over and expressly check for alcohol. They didn’t do that as much back when I still lived there, it seems to be rather popular now. I suspect it may be a good revenue source.
When I lived in Georgia, the DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) checkpoints were everywhere. They would set up in industrial parks and behind malls and shopping centers. I guess they were trying to catch the people taking the “back” way home. I went through them pretty regularly while down there. No one ever complained of profiling back then.
Lots of states in the US have “seat belt checks” in the form of road blocks. This is how Washington State does it. The real reason, of course is to check for impairment. Since belt use is required, this is a “legal” way to make random stops.
In the 1970s and 1980s, ADAC (German equivalent of AAA) would set up the roadside shop with trucks where people could stop by for free lighting inspection and obtain free bulbs if needed.
I have not seen any of them in the last twenty years…
Addendum:
I found the name after asking my ‘older’ friends who remembered the 1970s and 1980s. It’s called ADAC Prüffahrzeug (inspection vehicle).
I erred in my assumption that ADAC had stopped those roadside inspection service. ADAC does still offer the service today…
What a great story!
Like everyone here, I suspect, and like almost everyone in the Western World ‘of a certain age’ there have been a a couple of Beetles in my life. I liked mine – there’s nothing like a bug to make you feel like a racing driver while never exceeding 80 KPH!- but have no rosy eyed illusions that they were reliable. However they were durable and repairable. I learned to drive a manual on my Grandfather’s 1966 – he said (kind and patient man!) that I drove like a drunken sailor rowing his way home – because I turned the wheel a little every time I looked down to make a shift… When I inherited that car some years later it taught me why the ’emergency brake’ is named that when a brake line failed (rusted out) on a mountain road. Between that and compression braking (thanks, Road and Track) I made it to the valley of my home and didn’t hit anything.
Later, when I bought my own (perhaps a COAL here?) I developed the maxim that:
A. There is nothing on an old Beetle that can’t be ‘fixed’ for $100.
B. There is no limit on the number of $100 repairs that may be required.
Prost!
+2!
+2. I had a number of them, and they were mostly great, with a few exceptions. I only got stranded once ever, and that was because my then-GF clearly overheated the engine, by driving it in fourth through mountains during a bed heat wave. Not enough air blowing though it.
+3 I’m replacing my front beam and I’m about to make my 6th order of parts.
And I see a few $100 repairs for next year, but I’m trying to resist scope creep.
By 1968 there were Ford Escorts and Opel Kadets that were a generation or two newer in design. Some considered the VW an old people car by then in Germany. Was the commonness of the VW among your young friends, a reflection of the value on the used market at the time. Or was it that VWs were sought out for their solid construction and meticulous older first owners?
John, several things came together to make the beetle the popular 1st car of our generation: they had well built long lasting chassis, were cheap to buy, and cheap to repair with simple tools. Escort and Kadett were popular as well and clearly superior to the VW. But there were simply not as many of them around. In particular Opel did very well as the beetle declined in sales. Ford picked up when Bob Lutz took over and improved quality. He brewed up a storm when he extended the warranty for Fords to a full 12 months and IIRC 20000 km when the norm was 6 months and 12000 km. The other guys had to follow suite.
I missed out on VW ownership (at least the air cooled kind). They were common as used cars in the late 70s, but did not often stay nice in my rusty climate.
A friend owned one, a 1967. He bought it about 1978 in an attempt to save money on gas. But after living with it through one cold winter, he gave up and financed a 4 year old Mustang II. The VW had charm and character, but the M II had heat.
I agree about the heat thing. My father had a brand new 1968 Beetle. He got it in Apr of 68 and wrecked it in Sept 1968. He was always talks about the Beetle being a great little car. I wonder what he would have thought of it if he had to drive it through that cold Philly winter? The replacement car was a 61 Vailant.
The “hot” questiion is this: did they know the critical part about getting good heat from a Beetle? That requires cracking the vent window slightly. The Beetle is essentially air-tight (which is why it floats and is hard to close the doors), so unless the vent is open a bit, there won’t be much hot air coming in from the engine.
It makes a very big difference. I drove my Beetles through numerous winters in Iowa and Baltimore, and once the engine warmed up, the heat was very adequate. Seriously.
When you think about it, an engine throws off so much heat, via air or water. In the VW, it comes via air, but if everything is working right, there’s plenty of it.
But there are several aspects that have to be in proper working order for that to happen, including the cracked vent window.
Having said all that, I don’t deny that a water cooled car ultimately does have the potential for better heating. 🙂
An 11 year old VW in salty northern Indiana commonly had rust holes in the air ducts under the car, as my friend’s did. I understand that the system was pretty good at speed in a non-rusty and well maintained car, but that was not what my friend had, unfortunately.
Since the fan blower motor in my Citroen retired I use the dropped window method to get heat in winter it works fine, on the 63 Holden I had equipped with NASCO accessory airflow heater the manual explained how to do this and how to use the vent system to prevent dust being sucked into the car old school technology sure but it still works.
1975 and newer Beetles came with enlarged heat exchangers which worked great. My car had a sunroof, and even with the temperature at night down in the upper 30s, I could open the sunroof (hey, it was my first sunroof car!) and be quite comfortable without a coat.
My grandfather had a beetle in the 60’s, my dad had one briefly in the very early 70’s, but by the time I hit driving age in the mid/late 80’s, beetles were no longer commonplace. At least in the part of NJ I lived in. But I do remember Grandpa’s red beetle and Dad’s green one.
My uncle drove the red one all through college and even on the day he graduated (I rode in it that day). The day after graduation, it was dead in the driveway and never ran again.
Perfect!
Ah, Semperit M401 tires. I had a set on my Saab 96 in the late ’70s. I read after buying them that they had a reputation for tread separation. Sure enough, I experienced 4 tread separations over time. Too bad, because the car handled well on them.
I’ve never owned an air-cooled bug and have no plans to. But if I did, I’d get a remote oil cooler, an oil temperature gauge, and hydraulic valve lifters. Valve adjustments every 3000 miles, egad!
At the risk of getting ahead of the story, I assume that the Audi 60 was a less powerful version of the Audi Super 90, which was sold in the U.S. for a couple of years in the early ’70s. They were thin on the ground here, and I doubt there are many survivors. A friend of mine in Los Angeles had one. I moved to Seattle in 1981 and haven’t seen one since. My friend’s Super 90 once needed a new carburetor float. He said that judging by the price, it must have been hand-carved by Dr. Porsche!
Valve adjustments every 3000 miles, egad!
You do the valves while the 2.5 quarts of (non-filtered) oil is draining. Once you have the knack of it, it really adds not more than 5-10 minutes to an oil change. Problem is, you’re doing it every 2-3,000 miles. No-one thought twice of it in the 1960s, but in the era of 10,000 mile oil change and 100,000 mile spark plug change intervals, it sounds quite unreasonable!
I did this for six years in the latter half of the 1990s, driving my ’64 120cc, 6 volt Beetle in Atlanta, Georgia heat and traffic. Winters in the Southern USA are not horrible, but it can get cold every now and then. My heat worked a lot better after I rebuilt the engine with new heater boxes and hoses, but I still carried an ice scraper for the *inside* of the windshield!
I finally caved and bought my ’00 New Beetle TDI when I realized, having started my own business, that I needed to spend more time designing for my clients and less time keeping a 35 year-old car running.
I found that waiting 5-7k miles was usually fine with my Beetles. I never had a problem with a valve dropping.
The hydraulic lifters did not work so very good. I bought a set from Iskenderian. Ran terribly and the reason given was that the oil pressure was not satisfactory. I don’t know the truth but it did work just fine again after I took them out and put stock back in.
There was a company named Bernies Bug Shop (maybe) that did a heater alteration which involved pulling air from the cabin and cycling that through. I have no idea if it was worth it or not. Just that it existed.
Air cooled VW’s might not be the perfect road car, but they make killer off road toys!
great story. loved the pictures and cultural references (e.g. bader meinhoff gang). strange days indeed.
My first car was a 69 Beetle, rusty holes in the floor so driving in the rain led to water coming up near my feet, and between the seats someplace. No heat, even had to take my front license plate off, and use it to prop up the battery after it fell partway out of the floor. Nasty little car, but I never did kill it, and sold it for the same $350 I had paid for it a year prior.
I never did change the oil…if the oil light flickered on during a turn, that meant it was time to add a quart, and I just kept a case in the back, behind the seat.
Aah, the memories!
I think I’m just past that “certain age” where everyone has a Beetle experience. I’ve never so much as ridden in one, and I can’t recall right offhand knowing anyone who owned an original. My parents, on the other hand, were in the prime of those years. Mom had a friend in college with a Karmann Ghia convertible, and always liked those cars afterward. She claimed even when I was a child (1980’s) that if money and safety were no object, she would like a restored Beetle. However this is the same woman who hated driving my father’s Fairmont with the I4 due to its lack of power, so I imagine the “romantic thought” of driving a Beetle would have been rudely disproven if she were to actually drive one.
Dad never owned one either but drove several of them, plus two different Type 2s, as a delivery driver for a local pharmacy in late high school and all through college. His first day on the job consisted of the pharmacist giving him lessons on how to drive a manual transmission. Evidently they didn’t hold up all too well to the road salt in northern New Jersey winters–he recalls holes in the floorboard in a couple of them at only 3 or 4 years old.
After coming across this thread, I had to write a comment here.
I just sold a 1969 Beetle 1300 like Wolfgang’s. It’s been in the family for 35 years. It’s really sad to see it go but with the 4th gear knackered (that lead to another story with an evil mechanic) I just had to sell it to a good home.
I’ve been in it since I was 5, so many memories, breakdowns, fix-ups.
It was originally Lotus White with Red interior. Had its 6th repaint (Old English White shade) about 4 years ago. The original motor had been replaced once. My father handed it down to me, said he’s too old to look after it. It has been my project car since I graduated and I managed to keep it running till now.
A Volkswagen Beetle is really inexplicably addictive. You hate it for all it’s mechanical deficiencies but the driving experience always brings a smile to your face.
Reading Wolfgang’s tales brought back memories of travels in 1970’s and 80’s, where families with kids in the back would be on the road to all sort of places on country roads (no highways then in Malaysia). Doing that in a Beetle was just so commonplace.
Having all those common Beetle problems (dead batteries, misfirings, leaky motor, holes in the floor, leaky windscreen, jammed brakes) added up to the experience.
Thanks Wolfgang! You brought up a lot of memories.
I’m surprised I missed this first time around. I guess US highway speeds in the 80s were lower since none of my Beetle owning friends lost the #3 exhaust valve, or it had already happened before they owned the car.
I’m actually familiar with Pneumant tires because the discount tire place near the VW dealer in Elmsford NY sold them and I had one Pneumant as the spare on my 78 Scirocco, having blown my tire budget on four new Michelins. Speaking of obscure brands that shop’s primary brand was Gislaved, a Swedish company later absorbed by Conti and our Volvo spent its later years rolling on Gislaveds. In the US in the 80s, Asian tires hadn’t taken off apart from the premium Japanese Bridgestone and Yokohama tires.
Thank you for reposting this. Excellent storytelling! I had several aircooled VW’s so it brought back many memories, both good and bad. One problem inherent to the design was that the motor needed to be run at the upper rpm range-within reason lol- to keep the cooling air flowing over the heads (already mentioned above). And yeah, they required greater than average maintenance, but it was all pretty easy to perform. I could do a valve check and adjust as well as checking dwell and timing in about 20 minutes, while changing the oil. Tin worm and other types of corrosion seemed to kill most of them in the end, though, and galvanic corrosion at the cooling tin attachment points was just one aspect. The oil cooler offset into the ‘doghouse’ should have been done at the beginning!
This is my first time reading your wonderful essay and history. Thanks for the fun read. “Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end…”
I had the fever big time, back in the day. Haven’t been around an air cooled VW in a few decades, its like riding a bicycle, never really forget, just less fun crawling around on the ground keeping things going now! Great fun rereading this one.
I am glad you guys enjoyed the read! I can’t believe it’s already 6 years since I posted it originally.