Date:         Mon, 31 Mar 2003 22:13:57 -0500
Reply-To:     Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject:      Scotty, I need more power...update and ethical dilemma(long)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Okay, it happened again on the way home with some interesting (NOT!)
additions.  I got about three miles out of town and lost power again.  I was
lucky that there was a big gravel area to pull off so I was out of harm's
way.  If you want to skip the details, I have several questions at the end
that I could use help with.  Here are some of the fun details:
1) The temp indicator needle was just below the LED.

2) There was smoke (?) coming out of the vents behind the rear side
windows.  It seemed to be just a little dark and smelled of burnt rubber.

3) I took off the engine cover.  The smoke was coming from the rear-most
section of the engine compartment.

4) The muffler seemed hotter than I ever recall it being before, though it
wasn't glowing red as I've heard others report on the list before.

5) There was a small amount of coolant pooled in some crevices behind the
crank pulley, just below a coolant line that has a 3" long rubber hose
connecting two metal ones.  The rubber hose looks fat and puffy, like it's
too long been here.  So much for asking the dealer to replace any hoses that
look like they need replacing . . .  I will replace that.

6) When the van's power was fading, the auto tranny seemed to be shifting
funny.  Probably a result of the strange power characteristics of the engine
at that point, but I checked the tranny fluid anyway.  It was nice and red
and at the proper level.

7) Being as the smoke smelled of burnt rubber and not of coolant, I checked
the oil level.  I had just had the oil and filter changed after all.  The
level was fine and the oil looked new.

8) Again, going by the burnt rubber smell, I checked the condition of the
belts and any hoses that I could see.  Except for the obviously bad section
of coolant hose, everything appeared fine.

9) I checked the vacuum hose coming off the fuel pressure regulator, to see
if my regulator was bad/had a leak.  No gas in the vacuum line.

10) Per my earlier email, figuring that my O2 sensor was probably either bad
or overcompensating because of my exhaust leak and causing my engine to run
rich, I disconnected the O2 sensor.

Here are my new questions:
At this point, I drove the remaining 12 miles home without any further
low-power incidents.  When I got home and put the tranny in Park, the idle
jumped up to 1800 briefly, then dropped down to a steady 1250.  I'm figuring
that this confirms my hypothesis about the O2 sensor.  True?

Now, if I leave the O2 sensor disconnected for the week or so that I'm
waiting on parts, will this harm my engine?

After the exhaust leaks are fixed, if I reconnect the O2 sensor and the
rough idle comes back, my O2 sensor is bad, yes?

This low power problem did not exist before I took my van into the muffler
shop (except one time during a bad rainstorm, probably water in the O2
sensor wiring).  Assuming that there was no hole in my muffler BEFORE I took
it to the shop and there very definitely IS one there now, could a hole in
the muffler cause this low-power problem?  Or could it exacerbate a problem
that already existed because of the exhaust leak before the O2 sensor?

Now, the ethics question.  There are actually TWO holes in my muffler, one
of which he did NOT point out to me, but which is in the shape of the end of
a flat-blade screwdriver.  If the holes in the muffler could cause the
low-power symptom, should I tell this shop to cancel the parts order, refund
my deposit for that order, and go somewhere else to get this fixed?

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions so far,
Marc Perdue
'87 Westy, "Smoky", "Wimpy", take your pick