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Date:         Sat, 12 Feb 2000 11:13:33 -0500
Reply-To:     Alan Pickersgill <pickersgill@HOME.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Alan Pickersgill <pickersgill@HOME.COM>
Subject:      Re: Hesitation
Comments: To: Darrell Boehler <midwesty@MIDWEST.NET>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Darrell/Frank: Another possibility, as with my '85 Transporter, is that the ground for the idle switch might be bad. Mine was an internal break in the wire. The problem was intermittent and had, I believe, been the cause of unexplained poor gas mileage problems from the time I bought the van in 1992 till I finally had it diagnosed in 1998.

When I got it the mileage was 10-11mpg. After spending a lot of time and money at small VW specialists I got the mileage up to 16-18mpg. Continued like this 1992-1998 (80,000km-180,000km). Always seemed to be running a bit rich.

After installing a brand new VWCanada rebuilt in the spring of 1998, we shipped the van from Ottawa to Vancouver for a major trip on the west coast. Only in Vancouver, far from home, did we find the mileage had gone down to 11 mpg. Very worried about pouring raw unburned fuel into a brand new engine, I turned to a dealer; something I don't usually do, fearing high labour rates and front counter people wearing white coats who usually know less about things mechanical than I do. The job of the white coats is to keep you from talking to the mechanic to find out if they know more than you do and talk you into unnecessary work. They are also trained to tell you that insurance regulations prevent them from allowing you to even see inside the garage.

Fortunately Beck Motors in Chilliwack British Columbia is not like that. A small dealership, they had a very competent mechanic (George) who knew how to use the computerized equipment and went through a very methodical process checking CO2 and hydrocarbon values against the specifications. His methodical approach turned up the bad idle switch ground wire. The total time was 2.5 hours or so, the total bill was $270. Price included an oil change and filter, replacement of the Oxygen sensor with the Bosch VW original equip. and 4 new plugs to replace the gas soaked ones. The van now gets 21-22 mpg (the best I think you can expect) and runs smoothly.

Given that I'd spent 3 times that amount on about 5 different occasions trying to get other mechanics to fix it, I think this is one of those (probably rare) occasions when going to the dealer makes good sense. I have no interest in Beck Motors - just think credit should be given where it is due, and think that sometimes going to the "right dealer" can make sense.

I 'm wondering if a rating of dealers is something useful that the list members could do for one another to steer people to the good guys in the VW garage business. We wouldn't have to say negative things about others just list ones we've found to be outstanding - especially for certain kinds of work.

Alan Pickersgill '85 Transporter converted to Westfalia Ottawa ON K1S2V8

----- Original Message ----- From: Darrell Boehler <midwesty@MIDWEST.NET> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 8:26 AM Subject: Re: Hesitation

> Hi Frank, > There are many things that can cause your problem. However when you > mention you have changed the O2, you unplug it and all is good. If your > throttle switch is ok suspect your afm as the problem. Check the wiper and > carbon track it slides on, may need to be cleaned or it is worn. > > Darrell > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <RAlanen@AOL.COM> > To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> > Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 6:32 AM > Subject: Re: Hesitation > > > > Same story on my '87 Westy. Been like that since I installed the new > oxy > > sensor, generic Bosch, from The Bus Depot. Unplug the black single lead > and > > the engine has no hesitation but does seem to consume more gas. Plug in > the > > black wire and the hesitation comes back. I also have the idle surging > > problem and have not tracked the cause of that yet either. So I have no > > solution to offer up here, just confirmation of the same symptoms. I have > > not had time yet to do a full check of the throttle body switch, the idle > > stbilizer valve, the idle stablizer control, air flow meter & harness or > the > > oxy sensor to see if any of thse items are out of spec and the cause of > the > > hesitation problem and surging idle problem. I may get on it this week > and > > try to figure it out. I'll report back my findings when I get them. All > > these electronic gadget just bug me, and I know a bit about looking into > them > > ! I can just imagine what someone who doesn't have a clue about all this > > electronic stuff has to go through to get these problems solved. Good > luck ! > > > > Cheers > > > > Frank Condelli > > '87 Westy & Lionel Trains > > Almonte, On > > Visit me on the web.......> <A > > HREF="http://members.aol.com/RAlanen/index.html">Frank, Rita & April's > Website > > </A> > >


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