Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:47:01 -0500
Reply-To: Millee Tibbs <millee.tibbs@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Millee Tibbs <millee.tibbs@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: 1985 Westy Vanagon shutters, dies, and then resurrects... help.
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTi=CxY53NYo76k5=NLccH4C5akMuLnS2+z7vvPBv@mail.gmail.com>
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Dear VW community,
I'm new to this list and I hope that this email is not our of line. I'm on
my second vanagon, a 1985 Westy (named Sally), and she seems to be alive
(and moody!) I was hoping that some one might recognize her symptoms and
let me know what might be going on. (And yes, I refer to her as a person...
surely you'll understand).
Since I have owned her she has had a problem where, when underload, she
shutters (hiccups, loses power, seems to lug even though she's in the proper
gear). This also happens a lot when we go over rough roads. When I first
got her, this would happen often and eventually she would stall. If I
waited long enough she would start up again and be fine. I changed the
distributor cap and cables (bosch). I brought her to the mechanic and he
adjusted her air flow meter (at the time I was at 7000 feet) and he put in a
new (used) coil. She continued to shutter, but she stopped stalling and
always started right up. As I drove to the east coast and down to sea level
she got a lot better.
Recently, however, she has started to die again. Normally, she starts back
up pretty quickly. Lately I've noticed a burning smell right before she
loses power. Twice now, when I've gone to start the ignition after she's
been parked for awhile, she won't turn over. The first time this happened I
thought it was the battery - possibly due to an old battery and cold
weather. We jumped it and it started right up. This weekend, it happened
again. I called AAA, but the jump wouldn't start her. Two days later, I
gave a friend the keys just to check and see if she would start and,
magically it would seem, she did. Cold weather seems to be a determining
factor. What is going on??
On a potentially related note, there seems to be something wacky going on
with the wiring. When it rains or is humid, the radio won't work until the
vans been running for about 10 minutes. In addition, the odometer doesn't
work at all.
I don't want to take her to a mechanic to do diagnostic work again until I
have an idea of what needs to be fixed. She never does what I say she does
in their presence and they still charge me a small fortune without really
having fixed the problem.
Thank you in advance for any and all suggestions.
--
Millee Tibbs
www.milleetibbs.com
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