Date:         Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:39:51 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: engine dying while driving
Comments: To: Richard Jones <jones@COLORADO.EDU>
In-Reply-To:  <4D9004BE.5090007@colorado.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 11:47 PM 3/27/2011, Richard Jones wrote:
>You should know by now that "you all" will never agree.  Scott
>says get the pig tail.  DavidB agrees that it can't be Vanagon
>Syndrome.

David says get the pigtail or the capacitor fix but lack of it's not
making your engine die as such.

>   Mark asks you to watch you tach when it happens.

David says that the tach will tell you if there's a problem in the
ignition primary circuit (before the coil) because it will drop like
a stone if that system quits for whatever reason.  Reasons could be
Hall sensor, bad connection at the distributor (plug known to be
flaky) , bad connection at the ECU, ECU problem (known to be a
failure point on 2.1l), bad connection at the coil (not
likely).  Mark knows all that, he was just being brief.

However with these problems generally the engine will just plain
stop, or cut in and out.  The gradual falloff is an important
clue.  Listen very carefully to Dennis (always listen very carefully
to Dennis).  Quick diagnosis for this is very simple:  unplug the O2
sensor and drive that way for a while.  If problem goes away you know
you've got bad/weak sensor, air getting into exhaust from exhaust
leak, cylinder not firing properly (getting air into exhaust) or
such.  Dennis's tests are good too.

I'm packing for Seattle so can't give this any more time today...

Yrs,
David