Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 23:00:40 -0500
Reply-To: "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Organization: Bulley-Hewlett
Subject: Re: oil light and buzzer
In-Reply-To: <ce.21a03bf3.299dcde0@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I'm going completely out on a limb here, since I don't own or work on
the h20 vanagon.
The L-jetronic EFI system uses a vacuum-diagram-controlled fuel pressure
regulator on the fuel rail. If the diaphragm fails, the vacuum can suck
raw fuel into the intake causing mildly rich running during operation.
When you shut the van off, however, the remaining fuel pressure in the
rail squirts out through the broken diaphragm, through vacuum tube, into
the intake, and down to the cylinders, thinning the oil. If you only
take short trips, the thinning can happen fairly quickly. Highway trips
tend to 'cook off' the gasoline from the oil as the gas has a very low
boiling point.
Again, Idunno if the H20 vans have a similar Achilles' heal, but this
*might* be your problem if the do.
From historic, walkable Mount Olive, NC,
G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett
Corporate Communications
Business: www.bulley-hewlett.com
Alliance: www.ntara.com
Home: www.MountOliveNC.info
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Chris brown
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 9:35 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: oil light and buzzer
I had this very same disconcerting problem occur this past
weekend in
my '87 waterboxer (for now). No light for the first 20 minutes of
operation,
then a flicker and a buzz when decelerating (came on in the 2800-3000
rpm
range) Pull over, check oil, wait 20 minutes or so, repeat (I did this
from
PA to CT, thank you very much.) Oil level was fine, oil was cheap Esso
10W30
with a gennie VW filter, three weeks and 500 miles since I changed it.
I
brought it to a Vanagon-friendly mechanic on Wednesday and picked it up
this
morning. He had checked the oil pressure and found it to be within
normal
range for a used engine, but found the oil to be very thin. Here is
what I
found to be of interest and concern: he tested the oil (he has all sorts
of
cool equipment) and found it to be heavily contaminated with
hydrocarbons.
He assumed that the oil was old and changed it, putting in another VW
filter
and 20w50 this time (normally, 10w30 would seem appropriate for a New
England
winter) Anyway, the flicker is gone, but I'm left wondering, how is
gasoline
getting into and thinning the oil so much and so quickly? Is the FI
running
too rich? Fuel getting past the rings? It passed emissions in January
and
has been running well, so I'm somewhat baffled by this.
P.S. engine for sale much cheaper now, in light of recent
developments...the
heads still don't leak!
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