1985 Volkswagen Bus/Vanagon Westfalia

Up for sale is a 1985 Volkswagen Westfalia. I’m selling it because I’ve jumped on the sprinter bandwagon. I was in need of more space so that I could live out of a van comfortably.

The van is in good condition with the one big exception of the engine. It has no compression on one cylinder and low compression on another. It is driveable across town but I wouldn’t trust it beyond that. Without further ado, here are some pros and cons. I’ll start with the cons to get them out of the way.

Cons:

- Like I said, the engine. I’ve taken it to a couple mechanics and both say that it’s nearing the end of its life so I would only purchase this van if you think you’ll be able to replace the engine in the near future. I feel that my asking price reflects the state of the engine.

- I think the struts will probably need an update soon.

- Current tires probably have about a third of their life left.

- Odometer is broken and has been since I purchased it. I would guess that I’ve put 60-70k miles on it since 2009. This is a common issue caused by hitting the trip reset while the van is in motion. You can send the odometer/speedometer unit into VanCafe and they will do a fix for $70.

- Some minor interior wear. ie. the covering of the driver's side headrest is peeling from contact with the stove top while opening and closing. The interior sliding door panel has a crack in it on its rearward side (functionally fine but aesthetically noticeable).

Pros:

-I had a tranny rebuild done by German Transaxle here in Bend. My research found this to be one of the best German tranny shops in the country. This was probably at least 3 years ago but have put 100 miles max on it since then (basically just turning driving around the neighborhood every couple of weeks to keep the engine running).

-Auxiliary Propex heater runs off the onboard propane. Heater runs on an adjustable thermostat. I installed this in 2015 I think and have used the van very little since that time so it probably has less than 3 hours of run time on the heater.

-Water tank de-icer runs on a set thermostat. I believe it turns on at 32F and off at 37F. The system can be turned on and off via a switch inside one of the cabinets. I installed this in 2015 as well and haven’t actually used it yet.

-200 watt inverter installed under the driver’s seat. It has a USB plug or you can plug it in to the van’s existing AC system and it will power the outlets off of the battery.

-80w solar panel mounted on the roof which charges an auxiliary battery under the driver’s seat. The auxiliary battery also charges while the engine is running and it powers the sink, fridge, auxiliary heater, water tank de-icer, and inverter.

-All kitchen appliances work. The water pump and faucet are both relatively new. The fridge runs on all three inputs, AC, DC, and propane. The propane can be finicky if you haven’t run it in a while but I’ve got the starting technique down now and it seems to work well.

-I’m including the yakima roof box and rack. I also added an awning lift assist kit to compensate for the increased weight of the roof box.

-GoWesty 2” hitch receiver below rear bumper.

-Aftermarket stereo upgrade. Only the stereo not the speakers. However, when I made this change I found that the current amplifier was no longer good enough to power all four speakers at anything above a low volume without the sound breaking up. So I only run it on the front 2 speakers and it works fine.

-Awning is in good shape without any holes.

-I still have the original tables, fifth passenger jump seat, bug net for rear door, a Bentley service manual, spare fuel pump.

-I’m including a set of studded winter tires. They’re probably at about 50% of their life span.

-I’ve kept up with all maintenance schedules and generally switch oils twice a year depending on the season.

-Title is clean and in-hand.