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Date:         Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:32:54 -0700
Reply-To:     Joel Cort <joel_cort@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Cort <joel_cort@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: engine dying while driving
Comments: To: Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
In-Reply-To:  <AANLkTikO3FGf9OinXL1+Hy4-D6xMTgSkgOWNYxY8+O2y@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hey Joy, Good to hear from you. Now that all of the List Experts have chimed in, I'm sure that you are completely confused as to where to look and what to replace. Everyone is going down the same rat hole trying to diagnose and replace components, but let's take a step back and try the obvious part of this circuit.  The ignition switch on the Steering wheel.  When you are sitting in the driver's seat with the engine running and humming just fine, try to wiggle the ignition key up and down and see if that makes the engine stop or spit and sputter.  Don;t turn the key off and on, just wiggle it.  Or if you have the lower cover off below the ignition key, wiggle the harness and see if that changes the engine from running.  Don't pull the wires, just wiggle them as a bundle. If the engine stops or sputters, it could be because the plastic ignition switch insert may be broken and defective causing the power to the engine to shut off at random times by road vibrations shaking the key mechanism. Speaking from real road experience this will cause the engine to die intermittently and the first thing you do is go look in the engine bay.  Just a thought and a cheap solution with a $10 ignition unit. Hope that sheds more light.  Happy Camping, Joel Cort Rochester NY jcort@rochester.rr.com joel_cort@yahoo.com 89 Syncro Westy (VanGo) 87 Syncro Transporter (Stella) 73 Westy Campmobile (Agent Orange) Western New York LiMBO Representative www.limbobus.org Founding member of the Empire State VW Camping Club www.empirevwcamping.org Westies@Watkins X is set for Sept. 23-24-25, 2010 www.westies-at-watkins.org ________________________________ From: Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Sent: Sun, March 27, 2011 2:20:47 PM Subject: engine dying while driving Hi folks, Got a vanagon question!  No halogen lights, no list-language discussions, all vanagon. My engine has an intermittent problem.  It dies while driving.  This has been going on for a long time (since last fall).  I'm driving along, usually (but not always) at fairly slow speed, in suburban or urban driving, and it just loses power and then dies.  Sometimes it loses power and if I give it more gas, it bucks and coughs (choose your metaphor) - then sometimes it dies, and other times it feels like something catches in the cough and it starts going normally again.  Feels very weird. This seems to happen more predictably when I'm going up a hill, or have to shift in urban driving.  I find myself giving it more gas than I usually would, and sometimes revving it too high without shifting, in order to prevent it from dying.  I'm afraid to go up really steep hills (MANY of them in St. John's) because I'm sure it will die, and I'll not be able to start it up again, and then I'll be in a mess, having to back down the hill coasting or something.  (This happened once.  Not good.) When it dies, I put flashers on, stop, turn the engine off, turn it back on, and almost always it starts up and behaves properly.  Canadians are extremely polite, but I imagine the people behind me do NOT appreciate this. One time it did this at high speed, on the Trans-Canada.  Not good.  It wouldn't start up again - well, it did, but then died promptly again.  I pulled over, called a tow truck, waited around ten minutes.  Then started it and it worked fine.  I ended up canceling the tow truck, and didn't have any more problems for the next 400 or so miles till I got home. I've taken it to two mechanics.  Before heading back to Newfoundland in February, I took it to my mechanic in NJ.  He said "sounds like an electrical problem."  He searched all over, and drove it around, but it didn't act up when he was driving it, and he said he couldn't figure out the problem unless he saw it happen.  Incidentally, this same mechanic replaced my alternator in October, and I drove a fair bit (up to Westies at Watkins and back, maybe 600 miles) after that with no problems at all.  So presumably it's not the alternator. So reluctantly I headed back to Newfoundland (long drive, cold weather, not nice to take risks with uppity van when Propex heater still doesn't work despite Karl M's repairing it last fall).  I got as far as those 400 miles from St. John's, that's when it died on the Trans-Canada.  After it started up again, I drove into Corner Brook, which wasn't far, and took it to a mechanic who someone had told me was the best one around for electrical work.  They said that it sounded electrical, but if they didn't see it happen, they couldn't fix it.  He said something electrical is getting hot and then cutting out.  When I stop it cools down, and then it works okay again.  If this were the case, though, why would I have been able to drive from New Jersey to Newfoundland, all highway driving, without it happening once?  And why does it more reliably happen when driving around town, often when I've just started and the engine is cold? So anyway, I came back to St. John's, got here fine.  Now I only drive to do errands around town that I can't do on foot.  Pretty much every time I drive, it cuts out at least once, then starts up again and seems okay.  It seems to happen often when going slowly - pulling out of a parking space, starting up at a traffic light, parallel parking. My neighbor (not a car mechanic) said he thinks it's a clutch problem, because I told him it happens more when I have to shift. What do you all think?  BTW, Matilda (my van) is an '89 with a manual transmission. I'm planning to take her to my mechanic here (who specializes in old VWs), but I'm almost waiting until I'm sure she'll act up when he drives it, since I suppose he'll also say that if he doesn't see it happen, he can't figure out what's wrong.  So I figured I'd ask for your opinions. What do you think? Joy


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