Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 17:40:35 -0500
Reply-To: Joe <jbeckham@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Joe <jbeckham@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Subject: Re: More O2 Sensor confusion...
In-Reply-To: <001e01c0a633$ef9f20a0$f1d60ad0@pavilion>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi Chad,
The 84's and 85's have a VW documented problem with the fuel injection
wiring harness. Where the coaxial wire from the o2 sensor connector join the
main part of the harness, the coax is bent back at a sharp angle. This
eventually destroys the impedance of the small length of coax, and your
engine will respond with full rich. The best way to tell if this is the
problem is that your engine will run great during the cold start period, but
after warm up, change to closed loop the FI will go to full rich. This
happened to my 85 Westy when it had 50,000 miles on the dealer took two
weeks to locate the problem.
J.R. Beckham
Narragansett Rhode Island
85 Westy 264,000
91 GL 161,000
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf Of
Schmidt
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2001 6:53 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: More O2 Sensor confusion...
Chad, all- I'd like to know the solution to this as I have the same problem.
I recall my 84 having full power and smooth idle while my (1yr) old o2
sensor was disconnected and I awaited the new one from BD. Symptoms
returned with the new properly installed o2 sensor. I'm sure my mpg would
improve if I dc'd the sensor forever. I got dem ole
intermit-no-power-crappy-idle-fill-the-tank-every-140-miles blues, mama.
Things that MAY affect the o2 sensor performance on mine: I have no cat-
just the straight pipe(cats are expensive). Maybe it is a bad ECU, but why
is it not bad with the o2 sensor dc'd?
I have the feeling that the most affordable, least time consuming answer is
to cut and tape that one little wire. I hate to throw in the towel like
that, but nobody seems to have the answer.
Let me know if you correct the problem. I *KNEW* mine wasn't the only van
with this problem!
Jay
84 wolfsburg westy
new plugs, plugwires, idle stabilizer, cap, rotor, ignition switch, AFM
cleaned per archives, grounds double-checked, new o2 sensor on 1 y.o. entire
exhaust, no vac leaks, no fuel starvation, no cat to clog yadda yadda yadda
PS: I bet when your symptoms appear, if you shut off the eng for a few
seconds you will temporarily cure this. ARGH!
>I originally asked the question about the O2 sensors today and how my
crappy
>idle and hesitation disappeared when I disconnected my O2 sensor. Well
>today I took it upon myself to replace the O2 sensor and low and
>behold......the new one makes it run WORSE. The idle stumbles really bad.
>When I coast to a stop with the clutch pressed in the van almost stalls (ie
>all the leds come on on the dash) but keep running really rough. I noticed
>while coasting to a stop the tach drops really fast all the way down to
>~400RPM and settles around 750-800RPM with the sensor connected. When
>coasting to a stop with the O2 sensor disconnected the tach drops slower
and
>settles smoothly at 1000RPM. Any suggestions what I should do now????????
>Will my fuel mileage go to hell if I drive with no sensor?????
>thanks,
>Chad 85GL
>
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