Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 16:48:33 -0700
Reply-To: Harald Rust <harald_nancy_vw@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Harald Rust <harald_nancy_vw@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: The "Other" Vanagon Syndrome, Part II
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
From http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/vw-camping/
After spending many days touring the Yellowstone
geysers, wildlife viewing, photographing the Grand
Tetons, and driving hundreds of miles in the parks at
8,000 feet, it's time to go back home to Washington.
In the parks, the vanagon runs perfect, and
our confidence has returned.
We exit Yellowstone at the north entrance, and
proceed on to Livingston, Montana, and there top
off with Exxon premium and get back on I-90 west.
After 50 miles on the highway, it starts all over
again, bucking, backfiring, loss of power, as
if someone back in the engine compartment cut
the fuel supply off.
We are 800 miles from home, and there are some big
mountain passes in front of us, and it's
becoming very nerve-wracking.
We pull over once again, move all the things onto
the camper floor, and open up the engine compartment.
Start up the waterboxer, and now it confounds us
by idling really nicely again.
Back on the freeway, after another 60 miles or so,
it starts stumbling again. After a very long day
of slow driving, we limp into Butte, Montana
with 35 mph and the emergency flashers blinking.
Camp at the KOA. In the morning we buy a new fuel
filter at a store, and replace the old one
at the KOA.
(for good measure, also put in the spare coil.)
I cut open the old fuel filter, which
is also fairly new. Hardly any dirt in it.
The paper element looks just fine.
There are a few water droplets in the fuel,
but nothing that should make the vanagon stop running.
People blame a lot of problems on bad gas.
I was always skeptical of that, because the other
cars seem to run ok on the same gas.
The vanagon isn't that different, or is it?
So if it's not bad gas, what is it then?
The symptoms are always a leaning out of the fuel.
So finally we realize it could be clogged fuel
injectors. Maybe clogged or worn fuel injectors
are more sensitive to reformulated gas containing
ethanol(?)
Maybe that's the reason some vanagons seem to
run better on certain brands of gas.
In Western Washington our vanagon always
ran great on the cheapest regular gas.
Maybe the heat of all-day freeway driving makes the
varnish deposits in the fuel injectors stick(?)
Stuck fuel injectors is something that we hadn't
thought of up until that point.
Our injectors have been replaced once, but are
about 9 years old with 110,000 miles on them.
Never really added much detergent to clean them
on a regular basis.
So we drive down to the gas station mart, and
stock up on 5 bottles of Techron additive.
The guy behind the counter comments on how
expensive the stuff is, and that's why he rides
a bicycle.
So we start by pouring 2 bottles of Techron in
the fuel tank. Get back on the freeway, a little
later the vanagon starts bucking once again.
Another 100 miles later, the bucking becomes
less severe, and sometimes I'm even able to
keep up with traffic on a uphill grade.
At the next fill up, add more Techron.
By the time we reach Idaho, the vanagon runs
really great again, and the stumbling totally
disappears. We drive all the way back home
without any problems.
Still with all this, we don't consider the
problem fixed. It's probably time to replace
the fuel injectors, or at least, take them out,
and send them in for ultrasound cleaning or something.
Some research shows that European car fuel injectors
are more sensitive to sticking than domestic.
So it looks like we'll be replacing the fuel
injectors soon, even though the vanagon is
running really well again right now.
Harald
'90 westy
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