This is all well and good, but I would stick to using O.E.M. parts as much as possible. They may cost a little more but you have a chance that they will work/fit and last longer.  Knowing that these van are "Rolling Fire Ships"  please use only O.E.M. fuel lines.  A lot of these vans/campers go up in flames when people use cheap all purpose rubber hoses from the local parts stores.  Your fuel Injected engine runs with a lot of fuel pressure so you have been warned.

I'm kind'a slow, but I finally learned.   :lol:   Auto Zone carries a voltage regulator for buses with generators.  The last one I bought was about half what a Bosch regulator cost.  I ran the cheap one for several years . . . anything electrical on bus (battery, regulator, starter, light bulbs, generator, etc.) had a life expectancy of about 4 or 5 months.  I put a Bosch regulator on it about 4 years ago and all my electrical problems vanished.  The lesson here is "cheap" doesn't always equal "cheap."     :wink:

Whatever parts you get from Advance Auto or Auto Zone, be sure and keep the receipts. I just had my alternator replaced for the second time and since it had a lifetime warranty, they swapped it for free both times.

Autozone swapped Alt. twice for free ?  Don't tell me that they furnished the mech/labor .

Quote from: "Russ"

Whatever parts you get from Advance Auto or Auto Zone, be sure and keep the receipts. I just had my alternator replaced for the second time and since it had a lifetime warranty, they swapped it for free both times.

You don't necessarily have to keep your receipts for Autozone. Anything with a warranty can be looked up with the phone number you used when setting up the warranty, so just don't forget that phone number. The only lifetime warranty that I don't understand is brake pads :?:

Keep them anyways, in fact make copies. The receipts will fade out and the parts stores only keep that purchase in their system for 2 years.

The oldest that I've hard to look up is since working at Autozone is from 2000 I believe.

I put an master cylinder on a 1988 Mercury Tracer years ago.  About 6 months ago I got the car back on the road after it had been sitting about 5 years.  The master cylinder had gone bad while it was sitting . . . I couldn't remember if I bought it at Auto Zone or Advance Auto, but I was sure it was one of them and I was kind'a thinking it had a lifetime warranty.  I went to Auto Zone first, and sure enough, they found it under my old home phone # and it had a lifetime warranty.  Not only did I get a new master cylinder, I got a little over $2.00 back because the price had gone down since I bought it . . . in 1996!!!  

I also had plug wire I bought in LaFayette go bad on a trip out of town and Auto Zone in Manchester, TN gave me a new one without a receipt 'cause they had access to my records from their computer.

I love their warranties and, most of the time, their prices.  I do a LOT of business with them . . . but I still try not to buy any air-cooled VW parts there!   :wink: