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Date:         Mon, 4 Oct 2004 22:50:52 -0600
Reply-To:     Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Subject:      update - Rocky's results - was Westy Karma, was stuck in Custer
Comments: cc: Budd Premack <bpremack@mn.rr.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Hi all,

Thank you everyone who sent ideas on what's bugging Matilda. You mostly seemed to think that it was fuel pump/fuel filter/clogged fuel hoses. A few votes for my oxygen sensor. I replaced that three weeks ago (though I don't think I needed to), so it's not the problem.

Well, so far this is the mystery problem. I got towed into Rapid City this morning, and Matilda and I are now resident with Rocky at Import Service. (Greetings from Rocky to you, Larry C. and Frank C. and Frank's friend Ina.)

Rocky spent six hours trying to diagnose Matilda's problems and so far has not succeeded. Things he tried (not entirely in this order):

- check fuel filter, little screen inside fuel pump, hoses from gas tank to fuel pump to fuel filter. All were clean.

- check gas coming out of tank. Clean, no crud.

- check fuel pressure while driving. Too high, 40 (units?) while driving. Running too rich, black smoke coming out, lots of misfiring and lurching and stuff like that.

- check air flow meter. Swapped out my air flow meter for another one, went driving with that. No change in fuel pressure, black smoke, etc.

- put resistor (??) on air flow meter to check if I have intermittent Vanagon problem. Went driving. No change.

- checked temperatures all over the place. Found that the big coolant line into the thermostat was hot and the big coolant line out of the thermostat was cool. Replaced the thermostat. Went driving. Made no difference. If thermostat was bad and coolant wasn't heading up to radiator to cool, I don't understand why my engine has never overheated. And occasionally the fan does go on. The needle never shows the engine to be hot. Rocky hasn't yet checked if the hoses are now the same temperature as each other - gotta remember to do that tomorrow. Of course if I didn't need that thermostat, it would now cost more to remove it and replace my old one that to just leave it there.

- replaced heat sensor near fuel injectors, which was no good (he said). Made no difference.

- swapped my fuel pump for another fuel pump. Fuel pressure dropped to 15. Didn't even try driving.

- swapped for a second alternate fuel pump. Fuel pressure went up to 22. Tried driving, no power at all.

- checked that hoses from fuel pump to gas tank were clear. They were. Went driving (with second alternate fuel pump), fuel pressure back up to 40 and black smoke, no changes from the original situation.

- swapped computer for another one. Went driving, made no difference.

I think that was it for today, as far as I can recall. The next hypothesis is that I need a new fuel temperature regulator. Rocky ordered one of those, and also a new fuel pump, just in case either fixes it. So that's where we start tomorrow morning.

Any ideas?

And a question - I'd like your comments on this. Rocky said he would not replace the fuel pump with anything other than a Bosch, preferably new. He said all the after market fuel pumps are not good, they don't work well. He also said that if a used fuel pump sits for a few months it won't work well. So buying a used fuel pump was a bad idea unless I knew its history, and there was no point carrying a spare used one just in case

What do any of you think of that? (Aside from you, Ron - since you sell after market fuel pumps, I'm sure you find they work!)

I'm a bit at Rocky's mercy insofar as a fuel pump is concerned - I can hardly leave here without one, and if in fact a new Bosch fixes the problems after all this, I'm not going to say no. But I wondered what you all think.

So now it's ten pm, and I'm camped at Rocky's, in the dreary end of Rapid City. Actually, most of Rapid City is pretty dreary, IMHO, except for around two blocks of downtown and a pretty good coffee place on the southern edge of town (well, the beans are good, but this is South Dakota, so they brew it too weak). Oh, and there's a nice YMCA so I got to go swimming this evening after Rocky closed up, which is probably the only thing keeping me sane at the moment. Thank goodness I have a bicycle with me and could get there.

This is an interesting experience, not too different from my experiences with the mechanics in the UP. They guess what's wrong and they try things, and the things don't work. They each seem to have their a priori convictions about what the problem it - up in the UP it was the O2 sensor, with Rocky it was the fuel pump. They find components that they are sure don't work (e.g. with Rocky my thermostat and heat sensor, with Max in the UP my O2 sensor), and replace those, but that doesn't fix the problem. Nevertheless they are quite sure that the things needed replacing anyway, even though the hypotheses that led them to replace those bits of hardware were wrong, as evidenced by the new part not fixing the original problem.

It's a bit frustrating. Not that Rocky _should_ know, he's clearly baffled and frustrated as well.

And I don't know how these guys can stand working in a garage all day. By the end of four hours my eyes hurt from the car exhaust and I had to keep moving from place to place to get away from all the toxic chemicals. Driving endlessly around the dreary end of Rapid City on all our test drives felt like having a dust bath, I guess because there's a huge quarry out here. Of course Rocky can go home to a shower at the end of the day, whereas I'm camping here. Thank goodness for the Y with the swimming pool and showers!

Grumble, grumble. I don't regret having taking Matilda over my Prius, but I'm tired of this. I want to go to some nice humid place (dry air in SD doesn't agree with me either) with no car exhaust or toxic chemicals!

I'll keep you all posted! Maybe in the morning Rocky will be inspired and arrive with the magic solution! :-)

Joy

**************************************************************** Joy Hecht and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon

For musings about life and the vanadventures: http://users.rcn.com/jhecht/gypsy

****************************************************************


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