Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2009 12:17:09 -0800
Reply-To: Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: A New Perspective on Vanagon Syndrome
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This is the second of the promised posts about Things Learned on the Road.
I'm going to talk about 'Vanagon Syndrome' or as VW called it 'Intermittent'
driving problems.
There is a lesson here. NOT ALL VANAGON SYNDROME SYMTOMS ARE THE SAME.
Those who have been on these lists for any time have seen at least one
reference to 'Vanagon Syndrome' but let me describe it the best I can from
my experience. (Also see the links at the bottom of this post) I had one
occurrence in my '85 in the middle of nowhere in Utah. After driving for
some time at a steady speed the van felt like it had been hit by a 90 mph
headwind, total loss of power (but engine still running) and erratic
response from the gas pedal. Pulled to the side of the road, turned off the
ignition, restarted and no problem for another few miles then wham, same
thing again. Shut off and restarted again and never had the problem reoccur
up to the time I totaled the '85 a few months later. I acquired my '90
Westy in Jan 2002 and have now put just under 50,000 miles on it (total at
142,000 now) and most of that mileage on long trips. And not a hint of
Vanagon Syndrome until on the way to BBTB last month. But this is where I
learned that Vanagon Syndrome has more than one form. Pulling out of
Susanville and heading down Hwy 395 toward Reno I started getting a slight
miss/loss of power/hesitation. It would come and go. Didn't bring me to a
halt at all and I could still maintain speed, around 60-65. I started
thinking about looking for a shop in Reno but the problem stopped as we
approached Reno. How do you troubleshoot a problem when it's not being a
problem? So we continued on. I was traveling with Bob Peak from Portland,
he was driving his Subie powered Syncro Weekender (don't ask about climbing
hills with a 2.1L while running with a Subie powered Vanagon, I don't want
to talk about it). After passing through Reno my van started to act up
again. Not enough to even slow me down, not the complete loss of power I'd
experienced in the '85, but very worrisome anyway. Bob suggested shutting
off and restarting to see if the ECU would reset and that worked. I did
that a couple of times and always got good running, for a while, after the
'turn off restart' cycle. This confirmed that I was most likely dealing
with a bad signal going to the ECU and most likely from the AFM. That night
we stopped in Lone Pine and in the morning I dug into the spares cache for
an item I'd acquired a couple of years ago from a list member, the infamous
Vanagon Syndrome Pigtail that plugs in between the AFM and the cable that
goes to the ECU. And the problem was cured, not another glitch for the next
nearly 3,000 miles until I got home.
So, add this info to the lexicon of info on Vanagon Syndrome. First, you
may not get COMPLETE loss of power but can get just a miss or hesitation.
This was new information for me. Second, the VW 'pigtail' works.
The one thing I didn't do that I should have, and will, is remove the
pigtail and drive for a while to see if the problem returns. That would
confirm the diagnosis. I'll do this because if I was dealing with nothing
more than a poor connection between the AFM and the cable that could have
been cured by simply unplugging and reconnecting the cables.
And don't get me wrong on this. NOT ALL RUNNING PROBLEMS ARE VANAGON
SYNDROME!!. Bad or dirty grounds will give similar symptoms and I'm told
that a misbehaving Temp 2 sensor (not failed completely) can give problems
like this. This post is intended to show, based on my experience, that
Vanagon Syndrome can be mild or severe, YMMV.
Footnote: For more info in Vanagon Intermittent Syndrome see
http://www.geocities.com/harald_nancy/intermitt._syndrome.htm
And that link includes info on a fix that works for many. BTW, if you want
to try the capacitor fix you can add the capacitor to the connections in the
external plug as well as the method shown.
And even more info here complete with the VW write-up:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2a/rack/afmharness/afmharness.htm
