Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:26:31 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Idle hunts except when in gear
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8"; reply-type=original
Hi ...
It's almost 'normal' .........common for sure.
I would try another idle stabilizer gizmo ..though I'm not saying you should
invest in a new one .
I have like half a dozen used ones .....some hope there that that might make
a difference.
and ..
I mention this about 3 times a week..
A large majority of the waterboxer vanagons I see in my shop have the idle
switch not making contact at idle..
and timing too advanced.
MOST vanagons I see ....and it's dozens per year............ suffer from
that.
I just fixed the later sytle 1.9 throttle body and switch for that. Had to
remove it from the engine to do that.
you can also turn down the idle a bit at the air bypass screw on the
throttle body .
it's a non-technical adjustment pretty much ..
i.e. you can't screw things up to much by turning that large screw
..counterclockwise (out ) is faster, in is slower.
I'm serious though ..
that the throttle switch makes contact at idle is a very important input ..
It's almost rare that I find them working correctly on these 25 year old
vanagons.
and 'usually' the timing is too advanced at idle.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rocket J Squirrel" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 4:13 PM
Subject: Idle hunts except when in gear
> I've been wrestling with this issue for a couple years. It's gotten more
> frequent, now.
>
> When idling, the engine (1.9L) rpms hunt up and down.
>
> Sometimes.
>
> It will keep doing it until I put the van into gear. Drive up to the
> bank's drive up window, put it into park, and it will start doing it
> again. Sit at a traffic light with foot on brake and transmission in
> Drive (AT) and no hunting at all.
>
> I asked a local VW mech about it, and he bypassed the idle stabilizer
> electronic thingy (plugged the two cables into each other) to see if
> that was the issue. For a few months, no problem. But the issue has
> re-occurred with the stabilizer thingy still bypassed.
>
> I went over the air intake system quite closely three years ago, and
> found no leaks.
>
> It's the "it stabilizes when transmission is put into gear" thing that
> seems a bit of a clue.
>
> --
> Rocky J Squirrel
> '84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> '74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
> Bend, OR
> KG6RCR
