Hey Mark,

SNIP/ But, for the life of me, I can't imagine why some people spend so much time guessing about why your van is doing something weird. I have found that by far the most efficient thing to do when confronted by such a diagnostic riddle, is to have a "full blown, dyed in the wool, unmitigated, fully informed, high tech gadget owning genius, do your dirty diagnostic work for you! If you get someone who REALLY knows your car, and I mean specializes in it, they can tell you what's wrong with your temperamental little beast in about hours time. You pay him 50 clams or so, and you go then about the relatively simple task of wrenching the ailing auto back into shape, saving lots of time and money in the process You get the benefits of having a specialist tell you what's wrong (saving time), and you do the work (saving money). No muss, no fuss, no headache. I used to play the "lets track down this fiddly problem" game, but man, life is short! /snip How many of these specialists exist? That's the problem man, very few people like this exist except in the garages, backyards and carports around the country who subscribe to this list. Where I live, the nearest dealership is 90 miles away. When asked to service my '89 Carat, they tell me that it will take longer than usual since they do not have qualified technicians familiar with this vehicle. No Lambasting, just wanted to let you know why we are all here. When you can't figure out your particuliar problems and cannot find a 'specialist', write us back and we'll be there for you.

Jeff Birk '89 Wolfsburg GL (Road Whale) '82 MB 240D (Slo Mo)