The car will make the trip if you understand the vehicle you are driving. CSA pointed out good items to remember. You will need to have the oil changed before the trip and keep extra oil to top off the oil level frequently. VW’s only have about 3 qts of oil in them and they are air cooled. This means the oil is stressed and critical to the health of the engine. Check the oil level a couple of times a day during the trip.
Keep an extra fan belt handy and know how to change it, which means have some basic tools available. The fan belt is important because if it breaks the car will overheat.
These air cooled engines tend to run hot, and you are heading into hot country. On long hills shift to lower gears and try to take it easy on the motor. Cylinder #3 seems to be the one that gets “burned” by overheaing most often. VW’s are simple to repair but not many mechanics have ever worked on these air cooled motors. If you have problems you need to find a mechanic that knows the VW air cooled motors and has experience with them. They are very different animals compared to modern motors. Parts can be a problem too, but you have time for an adventure so the most critical parts to have handy is the fan belt, and make sure the spare tire is ready for service just in case.
Generally VW air cooled motors need rebuilding every 50 to 100K miles. That means new pistons, rings, and pots (which are new cylinders which are easily removed and replaced on these motors). 70K miles on the motor means it could burn some oil and might need a rebuild not long after your journey.
Yup, that screen will prevent pebbles from circulating in the oil.
Anything much smaller than a pebble will become part of the lubricant, unfortunately.
This is just a small part of the joys of 1930s era engineering!
The author of How to Keep Your VW Alive (or whatever that large-format, spiral-bound paperback was called) had the last name of Muir. I found it very useful when I owned a VW Karmann-Ghia.
John Muir, perhaps? Yes, I know that this was the name of the famous naturalist, but the book’s author may also have been named John Muir.
You have got to be kidding. You really wouldn’t drive a car because it doesn’t have A/C, airbags, ABS, or power steering? Seriously? If you needed a ride, I couldn’t give you one in any of the vehicles I drive. What do you think of motorcycles?
I think you’ll have a blast ! A VW Bug is as reliable as an anvil, and in the unlikely event something does go wrong, they’re incredibly easy to repair, parts are readily available, and you’ve already stated that you’re not in a hurry. My only question is: what are you waiting for? Get going !
the 1st college threw me out after 1 yr.Me and my friend drove my '63 red conv. from Maine to Fla. along rte.1 I-95 wasn’t built yet.We drove all over Fla. and back to Me. a year later with no trouble at all.Oil changes are mandatory,as is a spare tire,belts and bulbs.So go already.A/c?who needs it? Live long and Prosper.
That is the understatement of the week.
To be more accurate, these cars–which were engineered in the 1930s–have no passenger protection whatsoever. A collision–especially a front-end collision–will likely have disasterous consequences.
No “crumple zones”, a gas tank that sits approximately 2 ft in front of the driver’s and passenger’s laps, a windshield that is only about 1 ft in front of your face, a rigid steering column, and the absence of shoulder harnesses all make for a car that does not protect its occupants from impact. When you couple that with the fairly pathetic brakes and the rear suspension’s tendency toward camber problems on sharp curves, driving this car slowly and very carefully is a must.
Millions of Bugs made that trip. The closer you get to Mexico, the more spare parts will be available. I’m sure if you run into problems,Bug fans will help you on your way. Good luck and have fun on your adventure!
I have to agree with VDCdriver. When I was younger, the interstates were literally littered with VW collision deaths. My advice would be don’t use the VW, don’t take the trip, in fact, don’t even leave your house. Why do you suppose there are no hippies around anymore? Coincidence?
I’ve only been involved in one VW collision, so maybe I don’t know about this, but after being T-Boned by a limo, the frame was bent, but I was able to drive it home.
p.s. the whole front end is a crumple zone. What else could it do?
It should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway. You will be traveling through some very hot and not all that well populated parts of the planet at the hottest time of the year. Carry drinking water – lots of it. And I’d stick to major highways and stay off isolated rural roads. A couple of miles to a campground or scenic site is fine – assuming that you can walk a couple of miles if you have to. But stay off 25 mile dirt roads between “towns” that, for all you know, may have been abandoned 20 years ago.
For those not accustomed to the weather in the southwest it can be formidable. You might consider how well all concerned could deal with several hours sitting in a broken down car on the roadside with the temperature in excess of 110*. I have driven through Arizona and New Mexico several times in the summer without AC and it was tough. Driving at night would help some.
Back in 1999 my wife and I were returning home from visiting our son who was living in southeastern Tennessee. We were on I-75 just north of Lexington, Kentucky traveling with traffic just a few miles an hour over the speed limit. A young lady in a VW from the 1960’s came flying around all of us traveling at least 80 miles per hour. I think the engine had been modified, because it had some kind of special exhaust pipe. However, the body was so bad that the rear fenders were literally flapping in the breeze. About 2 miles up the road, a state trooper had pulled the VW over. My wife commented,“Instead of a ticket she should be given a medal for getting a VW to go that fast”.
“Install a throttle body” what could that possibility mean" “reliable as an anvil” I have see the most ridicluous things go wrong with these cars that put them on the side of the road. How about the pin that limits choke travel falling out and the crankcase filling with gas? I can’t begin to count the number of VW’s that came in with full crankcases’ (full with gas that is). The number is way over 10 if I wanted to put a number on the ways the clutch can decide not to be activated.
If you took a trip either north on 1-5 in CA or south during the dying days of large numbers of air cooled VW’s on the road the sides of the interstate contains the cars that did not make it for some reason, this is normal, what is not normal is how many of these cars were air cooled VW’.
Don’t get me wrong I really appreciated how many really odd problems the air cooled VW’s had, kept beans on the table. I raced these cars off road from 1976-79 and I can sill remember how neat it sounde when 200 or more race ready VW’s all fired up their engines. They were a great power plant for off road racing and once after blowing a spark plug out on the race car we were able to pull the head off the pre run car and get going again, all in the field.