Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:00:04 -0600
Reply-To: don spence <dspence@OANET.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: don spence <dspence@OANET.COM>
Subject: Re: Stalls when hot. won't restart. 1.9 wbx
In-Reply-To: <b3a1e7ad040720093643f20e29@mail.gmail.com>
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Hi Craig
Thanks for the quick responce
On Tuesday, July 20, 2004, at 10:36 AM, Craig Oda wrote:
> Don,
> is your engine really running hot or is your temp gauge running
> incorrectly?
Probably the latter as it always reads above the LED. I replaced the
sender recently as the gauge was intermittent. now it's consistent but
always above the LED when at "normal" operating temp.
>
> when the engine bogs down and you open the engine compartment lid,
> does it seem unusually hot in there?
Not Unusually hot. Normal for an engine compartment I guess. But I'm
new to vanagons.
> Do you have a nice level of
> bubble-free coolant in the two tanks? If the aux coolant tank is full
> when the engine is hot, is it still nice and full when the engine is
> cold?
Yes and yes. The aux ( with the pressure cap) is full. I tried opening
it for a visual (cold engine) and it overflowed a bit so I tightened
the lid again. The overflow maintains a level between Hot and cold
lines.
> It should not vary that much, if any, between hot and cold.
>
> There are two fan settings. Does the lower speed fan also kick in?
I'm not sure which speed fan is kicking in. It runs for about a minute
after the ignition is switched off. Is there a way to manually trip
the two speeds to test function and ID the speed?
>
> Is the bogging down related to very high engine temps?
It's bogging down with higher ambient temps (30 + C or 83 + F) which of
course leads to higher engine temps. Prior to this I had only heard
the cooling fan come on once before after a prolonged period of idle on
another hot day. The symptom initially is: normal idle but unwilling
to build revs when accelerator is pressed. If I can coax it past mid
range it revs strongly and pulls.
The other personality trait it has regards restarting. If the engine is
cold it will crank a couple of cycles and start. Once warmed up, it
frequently will not start on the first attempt but does start on the
second cranking or occasionally the third. ( Key on, pump cycles LED
flashes. Turn to start position and crank.)
One other thing it's doing is steady idle at start up from cold, then
cyclic idle as it starts to warm up and back to a steady idle once
warmed up.
I've replaced the temp II sensor recently as well.
> Or, are these
> two separate things?
>
> Regards,
> Craig
>
> On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 10:12:24 -0600, don spence <dspence@oanet.com>
> wrote:
>> More warm weather woes.
>> 83.5 wbx.
>> The temp here has been in the low 30's C lately and my westy has
>> developed a new problem. I think my temp gauge reads abnormally high
>> as it reads at least a needle's width above the LED at "normal"
>> operating temp. That said, under the current conditions it rises to
>> maybe a needle's width to the left of the high mark. enough to kick in
>> the fan. I had just driven across down then about 10 km down a 70 kph
>> stretch to the next bedroom community. Coming off a stop light, the
>> engine bogged down and struggle to build revs though it did have power
>> once i got the revs up. Same thing in second and third. Next stop
>> light
>> it stalled as i de-clutched and would not restart. Pushed it around
>> the
>> corner and let it sit for an hour and it started up easily.
>>
>> Headed for home and all was normal until I hit a construction zone and
>> traffic slowed. Temp gauge climbed again and I had to play toe tag
>> with
>> the brakes and accelerator to keep it running. Stalled again at
>> another red light and same no start, cool down, restart routine.
>>
>> Got it home and it was doing it again. i did notice that there was
>> more
>> sound coming from the fuel pump than is normal. However that went
>> away
>> on the next restart after cool down.
>> Tank was at the first mark above the red zone.
>>
>> Any ideas on what might be causing this.
>>
>> TIA
>> Don
>>
>