Date:         Wed, 12 May 2010 16:45:29 -0700
Reply-To:     Robert Fisher <garciasghostvw@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Robert Fisher <garciasghostvw@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Odd bits of list wisdom and/was: RE: 91 Carat has the highway
              hick ups
In-Reply-To:  <131001caf146$57e79540$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

--snip--
as for air flow causing 02 sensors to get too cool while driving ...
well, first, speaking of heated or non-heated 02 sensors ?
and secondly ..
there are countless cars and car designs where the 02 sensor is exposed to
air flow, and they don't have problems, so I'm a little skeptical on that
one.

Scott

--snip

>Often the
> first
> signs of a bad or weak sensor is fast idle during cold weather or just
> after
> highway travel. The test! Cycle the ignition switch of floor the
> accelerator. If either clears up the problem for a short while, O2 sensor
> is
> the issue. Note that the O2 sensors originally had a heat shield or
> insulation on them.
>
> Dennis
--snip--

I was driving back to SoCal from AZ after Thanksgiving, and we got into
rain/sleet going into Flag. Now we use our wipers so rarely here that you
basically have to look at them as "disposable" in the sense that they won't
survive from the end of one "rainy season" through the summer to the next
rainy season. You use them 3-4 times and then you have to pitch 'em. Add the
local feral cats into the equation and the wipers just generally aren't in
great shape.

I replaced my wiper blades in Cottonwood but forgot to pull the wiper arms
and reset them. We were just about into Flag when a semi blew by and totally
dislocated my driver's wiper arm (again). I got out and relocated it but it
didn't hold, so I stopped under a canopy at a gas station there in Flag. My
brother was bitching and grumbling about how I was never going to get
anything to fix it with at that time of the evening when I pulled out the
1/4" drive, a pick and a razor knife, put a socket on the drive and took
care of it. He couldn't believe it worked. Now I hadn't done that particular
thing before but I remembered it from the list and knew I had the stuff to
do it; as I said I was going to do it in my Dad's driveway but just forgot.

So off we go to Williams to blow the kid's minds on the Polar Express. Major
Mommy and Daddy points, plus it started to snow like crazy right as we got
to the "North Pole" where Santa got on the train. It couldn't have been
better if we'd custom ordered it.

We decided not to eat dinner in Williams because we were afraid of getting
snowed in. The snow was very wet and coming down hard, and though I like my
tires they're all-seasons and I wasn't prepared for that kind of driving,
and we wanted to get to Laughlin that night.
After maybe twenty minutes of driving the engine started bogging down badly
and it eventually died. I was rolling dead in the slow lane with idiots
flying past me like there isn't any weather at all, thinking about how fun
this is going to be dealing with this in a snowstorm at night in the middle
of nowhere with three hungry kids, etc. I turned the key back, which of
course killed the lights (scaring the crap out of everybody), and managed to
crank the engine on again. Now my brother's bitching and grumbling again
about "this damn van" and generally crying doom and despair.
It ran for a few minutes and died. Cranked it up, ran for a little less time
and died; rinse and repeat. At this point the snow was turning more to rain
so I found a wide spot in the road (Ash Fork?) with a funky little diner and
pulled off. I thought about it over a couple of cups of decent coffee and a
pretty good bacon cheeseburger, and when we left I found another gas station
canopy, pulled under it, got out, disconnected the O2 sensor (three wire, no
shield) and drove the rest of the way to Laughlin and home without a hitch.
I had some fun chuckling at my brother, but of course he wasn't going to
give me the satisfaction of letting on that he was impressed or relieved or
anything.

Now of course as far as I know the sensor was about to die anyway (it was on
the van when I got it and I put some 15K on it I guess), but it had been
running normally until we had been in the rain/sleet/snow for that hour or
so of driving time; in fact it had been running normally until the temps
dropped and we starting getting the heavy snow after we left Williams. I
checked the connector when I unplugged it and it was dry, and when I finally
pulled the sensor it was relatively clean and the threads weren't corroded
or anything, but that shield is missing.

Of course an anecdote does not evidence make, but it's interesting how often
Dennis' little caveats seem to nail it when things go wrong. I dunno if I'll
ever have that happen again, but they put a shield on the sensor for a
reason, presumably, so I'd like to make or get one and put it on mine.

Two other things: I was driving home from Mammoth on 395 and I had been
distracted from my normal dash-glancing by some guy that appeared to be
driving his semi half-asleep. When I looked down after several minutes I saw
the battery light and the temp needle was climbing. I knew exactly what had
happened, instantly. I pulled off and two of the three belts were shredded
and the third was badly damaged. It took me longer to unload and reload the
camping stuff in the back (and to talk to the helpful CHP officer) than it
did to replace the belts.
Another time that I was in Laughlin the van started running badly after
warming up... I thought I knew what that was, and after perusing the
archives that I had on the laptop (thanks Wesley!), I ordered a Temp II
sensor (at a Checker's, of all places), got it the next morning and replaced
it by the side of Lake Mohave while my wife and kids were swimming.

That right there amounts to a whole bunch of time, money, worry and
headaches (and at least one blown engine) avoided just from being on this
list for seven years or whatever it's been now, and it doesn't account for
everything by a long stretch. I don't see how anybody can support this
particular habit without this list, other sites like the Samba
notwithstanding. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but it
definitely takes an international community to own a Vanagon. : )

Cya (and thanks),
Robert